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Severe spinal cord contusions interrupt nearly all brain projections to lumbar circuits producing leg movement. Failure of these projections to reorganize leads to permanent paralysis. Here we modeled these injuries in rodents. A severe contusion abolished all motor cortex projections below injury. However, the motor cortex immediately regained adaptive control over the paralyzed legs during electrochemical neuromodulation of lumbar circuits. Glutamatergic reticulospinal neurons with residual projections below the injury relayed the cortical command downstream. Gravity-assisted rehabilitation enabled by the neuromodulation therapy reinforced these reticulospinal projections, rerouting cortical information through this pathway. This circuit reorganization mediated a motor cortex–dependent recovery of natural walking and swimming without requiring neuromodulation. Cortico–reticulo–spinal circuit reorganization may also improve recovery in humans
Friedhelm Christoph Hummel, Maximilian Jonas Wessel, Takuya Morishita, Traian Popa, Elena Beanato, Pierre Theopistos Vassiliadis, Fabienne Windel
Henry Markram, Kathryn Hess Bellwald, Felix Schürmann, Daniel Keller, Eilif Benjamin Muller, Werner Alfons Hilda Van Geit, Michael Reimann, Matthias Wolf, Lida Kanari, Srikanth Ramaswamy, James Gonzalo King, Alexis Arnaudon, Ying Shi, András Ecker, Jean-Denis Georges Emile Courcol, Armando Romani, Pramod Shivaji Kumbhar, Fernando Joaquim Leite Pereira, Michael Emiel Gevaert, Judit Planas Carbonell, James Bryden Isbister, Huanxiang Lu, Daniela Egas Santander, Sirio Bolaños Puchet, Juan Bautista Hernando Vieites, Samuel Lieven D. Lapere, Joni Henrikki Herttuainen, Cyrille Pierre Henri Favreau, Christoph Pokorny, Benoît Jean-Albert Coste, Vishal Sood, Thomas Brice Delemontex, Adrien Michel Achille Devresse, Nicolas René Jean Ninin, Alexander Dietz, Gianluca Ficarelli, Hugo Thabo Dictus