ACTIVITY-DEPENDENT PLASTICITY AFTER SPINAL CORD INJURY

申请人的长期职业目标是开发以科学为基础的疗法，以促进脊髓损伤（SCI）后的身体康复和功能恢复。 申请人目前的目标是建立在她在SCI物理康复的临床专业知识，应用她在运动控制博士培训，并合并先进的知识和研究技能，发展成为一个独立的和有竞争力的研究者桥接SCI康复的基础和临床研究。 一个五年的研究和培训计划与主要导师，F。佛罗里达大学脑研究所（UFBI）的汤普森博士将实现这一目标。 该计划利用了UFBI SCI研究人员目前的合作、指导和研究专长。 该奖项的目的是：1）丰富候选人的研究和实验设计技能; 2）推进脊髓神经生理学和活动依赖性可塑性的现有知识; 3）开发评估脊髓神经生理功能的技术;和4）提高研究支持技能，包括科学写作和语法。最近已经探索了促进SCI后个体运动恢复的新方法，其使用与运动相关的感觉信息来优化活动依赖性可塑性以改善行走。 运动训练速度可能是一个关键的，活动依赖性参数提供适当的相位输入的神经系统。 在拟议的研究中，将在对照组和不完全SCI组中比较辅助运动和地上行走速度以及跑步机行走速度的神经生理机制之间的关系。 对于不完全SCI受试者，将评估训练速度和长期运动训练计划对脊髓反射调节功能和地上行走速度的影响。 本研究的目的是评估在不完全SCI患者中以特定速度进行长期运动训练是否会更好地促进神经可塑性，通过改善脊髓反射功能和增加行走速度来衡量。

The applicant's long-term career goal is to develop scientifically-based therapies to advance the physical rehabilitation and recovery of function in persons after spinal cord injury (SCI). The applicant's current goal is to build on her clinical expertise in SCI physical rehabilitation, apply her doctoral training in motor control, and merge advanced knowledge and research skills to develop as an independent and competitive investigator bridging basic and clinical research in SCI rehabilitation. A five-year research and training plan developed with the primary mentor, F. Thompson, PhD of the University of Florida Brain Institute (UFBI) will meet this goal. This plan capitalizes on current collaborations, mentorship, and research expertise of SCI researchers at the UFBI. The aims of this award are to: 1) enrich the candidate's research and experimental design skills; 2) advance current knowledge of spinal cord neurophysiology and activity-dependent plasticity; 3) develop the techniques to assess spinal cord neurophysiological function; and 4) enhance research support skills including scientific writing and grantsmanship. New approaches to facilitate locomotor recovery in individuals after SCI have recently been explored that optimize activity- dependent plasticity using sensory information related to locomotion to improve walking. Locomotor training velocity may be a critical, activity-dependent parameter affording appropriate phasic input to the neural system. In the proposed research, the relationship between neurophysiological mechanisms that sub-serve locomotion and walking velocity overground and on a treadmill will be compared in control subjects and subjects with incomplete SCI. For subjects with incomplete SCI, the effects of training velocity and a long-term locomotor training program on spinal cord reflex modulation function and overground walking velocity will then be assessed. The goal of this research is to assess if long-term locomotor training at a specific velocity in individuals with incomplete SCI will better facilitate neuroplasticity measured by improvements of spinal cord reflex function and increases in walking velocity.