Updating perspectives on spinal cord function: motor coordination, timing, relational processing, and memory below the brain

Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 2024 · DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2024.1184597 · Published: February 20, 2024

Spinal Cord Injury Neurology Neuroplasticity

Simple Explanation

Traditionally, the spinal cord was viewed as a simple relay station for signals between the brain and the body. This review challenges that view, presenting evidence that the spinal cord can perform complex functions independently. Research shows the spinal cord can organize coordinated movements like stepping, adapt to environmental changes, and even learn from experience, similar to processes once thought exclusive to the brain. These findings have significant implications for treating spinal cord injuries, suggesting that stimulating and retraining the spinal cord can promote recovery and reduce chronic pain.

Study Duration

Not specified

Participants

Rats, monkeys, cats, zebrafish, lamprey, and humans

Evidence Level

Review

Key Findings

1
Spinal cord systems can organize coordinated behavior such as stepping, even without input from the brain.
2
The spinal cord demonstrates plasticity, including the ability to learn and adapt to environmental relations, challenging the view of it as a fixed, immutable relay.
3
Noxious stimulation can sensitize nociceptive fibers in the spinal cord, contributing to chronic pain, and this sensitization involves mechanisms similar to brain-dependent learning and memory.

Research Summary

This review challenges the traditional view of the spinal cord as a simple relay station, highlighting its capacity for complex functions like motor coordination, learning, and memory. Research over the past 50 years demonstrates that the spinal cord can organize coordinated behavior, abstract stimulus-stimulus and response-outcome relations, and adapt to environmental demands. These findings have significant implications for treating spinal cord injuries, suggesting new avenues for rehabilitation and pain management by harnessing the spinal cord's inherent plasticity.

Practical Implications

Rehabilitation Strategies

Understanding the spinal cord's capacity for learning and adaptation can inform new rehabilitation strategies for individuals with spinal cord injuries, focusing on retraining and stimulating spinal circuits.

Pain Management

Recognizing the mechanisms of nociceptive sensitization in the spinal cord can lead to more effective pain management strategies, targeting the specific pathways involved in chronic pain development.

Therapeutic Interventions

Identifying the role of specific neurochemicals and signal pathways in spinal cord plasticity can facilitate the development of targeted therapeutic interventions to promote recovery and reduce complications after spinal cord injury.

Study Limitations

1
The review focuses on a personal perspective, potentially overlooking other significant findings in the field.
2
The scope of work conducted over the last five decades exceeds what can be reviewed here, making it difficult to be comprehensive.
3
Readers may have varying backgrounds in key areas, which impacts the understanding of spinal cord organization and learning and memory topics.

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