ACTIVITY-DEPENDENT PLASTICITY AFTER SPINAL CORD INJURY

申请人的长期职业目标是发展以科学为基础的治疗方法，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脊髓损伤物理康复的临床专业知识，运用她在运动控制方面的博士培训，并结合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在脊髓损伤康复的基础和临床研究。与主要导师，佛罗里达大学脑研究所（UFBI）的F. Thompson博士一起制定的五年研究和培训计划将实现这一目标。该计划充分利用了美国联邦调查局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)发展脊髓神经生理功能评估技术；4)提高研究支持技能，包括科学写作和资助。最近研究人员探索了促进脊髓损伤后个体运动恢复的新方法，即利用与运动相关的感觉信息来优化活动依赖的可塑性，以改善步行。运动训练速度可能是一个关键的，与活动相关的参数，为神经系统提供适当的相位输入。本研究将比较对照组和不完全性脊髓损伤受试者在地面和跑步机上的亚服务运动和步行速度的神经生理机制之间的关系。对于不完全性脊髓损伤受试者，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将被评估。本研究的目的是评估不完全性脊髓损伤患者在特定速度下的长期运动训练是否能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测量。

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.