Motor Cortex Stimulation Reverses Maladaptive Plasticity Following Spinal Cord Injury

Abstract

The majority of patients with spinal cord injury (SCI) develop intractable chronic neuropathic pain that is resistant to conventional pharmacologic treatments. An alternative and potentially effective modality of treatment motor cortex stimulation (MCS) offers hope for these patients. The purpose of this application is to elucidate the neurobiological basis of reduced pain following MCS. We propose that MCS reverses hyperalgesia by enhancing the activity in the GABAergic nucleus zona incerta (ZI), and therefore inhibiting pain processing in the posterior thalamus (PO). Using single cell extracellular electrophysiological recordings from the thalamus of rats with SCIpain we tested the effect of MCS on the activity of neurons in ZI and PO. MCS significantly enhanced spontaneous and evoked responses in the majority of ZI neurons and caused a significant and robust suppression of activity in PO. These findings are consistent with our overarching hypothesis that MCS alleviates pain by activating the incerto-thalamic pathway.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 2011
Accession Number
ADA552892

Entities

People

  • Radi Masri

Organizations

  • University of Maryland, Baltimore

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Animal Structures
  • Biological Sciences
  • Brain
  • Central Nervous System
  • Drug Abuse
  • Health Services
  • Nervous System
  • Neurons
  • Neurosciences
  • Pain
  • Peripheral Nervous System
  • Spinal Cord
  • Spinal Injuries
  • Surgery
  • Thalamus

Fields of Study

  • Medicine

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Neuroscience
  • Neurotrauma and Rehabilitation Medicine.