Corticomotor representation to a human forearm muscle changes following cervical spinal cord injury

• Published in: The European journal of neuroscience Vol. 34; no. 11; pp. 1839 - 1846
• Main Authors: Freund, Patrick, Rothwell, John, Craggs, Michael, Thompson, Alan J., Bestmann, Sven
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.12.2011
• Subjects: Adult; Atrophy; Atrophy - pathology; Atrophy - physiopathology; Blood; Brain Mapping - methods; Cerebral Cortex - anatomy & histology; Cerebral Cortex - physiology; Cervical Vertebrae; Computed tomography; Cortex (motor); cortical reorganization; Evoked Potentials, Motor - physiology; Excitability; Forearm; Forearm - anatomy & histology; Forearm - physiology; Hand; Humans; Leg; Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Male; Middle Aged; motor cortex; Motor evoked potentials; Muscle, Skeletal - innervation; Muscle, Skeletal - physiopathology; Muscles; navigated TMS; Nervous system; Neuroimaging; Oxygen; Perception - physiology; plasticity; Pyramidal tracts; Regression analysis; spinal atrophy; Spinal Cord Injuries - pathology; Spinal Cord Injuries - physiopathology; Spinal cord injury; Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation

Functional imaging studies, using blood oxygen level‐dependent signals, have demonstrated cortical reorganization of forearm muscle maps towards the denervated leg area following spinal cord injury (SCI). The extent of cortical reorganization was predicted by spinal atrophy. We therefore expected to...