“Dynamic transition of large-scaled network operation during recovery from brain and spinal cord injury”

Operation of the large-scaled network of the brain is dynamically and flexibly regulated depending on its inner status and environmental impact. Recovery after the brain and/or spinal cord injury is its typical example and understanding the functional recovery at large-scaled network would be help designing the effective neurorehabilitation therapies. We have been working on the neural mechanism of functional recovery of dexterous finger movements after the partial spinal cord injury in macaque monkeys. Combination of multi-disciplinary approaches such as neuroimaging with PET, electrophysiology, pharmacological reversible inactivation, pathway-selective manipulation by using viral vectors and behavioral analysis, revealed that the dynamical changes occur not only in the spinal cord, but also in the large-scaled networks spanning the cerebral motor-related areas and even in the limbic systems such as the nucleus accumbens. Another animal model of functional recovery is the “blindsight”, in which visually guided goal directed movements with eye and forearm recovers after the injury to the primary visual cortex (V1). In the current project of “Adaptive Circuit Shift”, we will aim at clarifying the dynamics of the large-scaled networks during the recovery of dexterous finger movements from the spinal cord injury and visuo-motor functions after V1 lesion, combining large-scaled (whole brain) ECoG recordings, circuit manipulation using viral vectors in the macaque monkey brain, and large-scaled computation of the circuit dynamics.

 
Recent Publications
1. Sawada M, Kato K, Kunieda T, Mikuni N, Miyamoto S, Onoe H, Isa T, Nishimura Y (2015) Function of nucleus accumbens in motor control during recovery after spinal cord injury. Science, 350: 98-101.
2. Kinoshita M, Matsui R, Kato S, Hasegawa T, Kasahara H, Isa K, Watakabe A, Yamamori T, Nishimura Y, Alstermark B., Watanabe D, Kobayashi K, Isa T (2012) Genetic dissection of the circuit for hand dexterity in primates. Nature, 487: 235-238.
3. Nishimura Y, Onoe T, Morichika Y, Perfiliev S, Tsukada H, Isa T (2007) Time-dependent central compensatory mechanism of finger dexterity after spinal-cord injury. Science, 318: 1150-1155.

Posted:2016/02/16