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Removing sensory input disrupts spinal locomotor activity in the early postnatal period

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Abstract

Motor patterns driving rhythmic movements of our lower limbs during walking are generated by groups of neurons within the spinal cord, called central pattern generators (CPGs). After suffering a spinal cord injury (SCI), many descending fibers from our brain are severed or become nonfunctional, leaving the spinal CPG network without its initiating drive. Recent studies have focused on the importance of maintaining sensory stimulation to the limbs of SCI patients as a way to initiate and control the CPG locomotor network. We began assessing the role of sensory feedback to the locomotor CPG network using a neonatal mouse spinal cord preparation where the hindlimbs are still attached. Removing sensory feedback coming from the hindlimbs by way of a lower lumbar transection or by ventral root denervation revealed a positive correlation in the ability of sensory input deprivation to disrupt ongoing locomotor activity on older versus younger animals. The differences in the motor responses as a function of age could be correlated with the loss of excitatory activity from sensory afferents. Continued studies on this field could eventually provide key information that translates into the design of novel therapeutic strategies to treat patients who have suffered a SCI.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Thomas Cleland for Spike 2 scripts used in data analysis and to Alex Kwan for Spike 2 scripts used in the generation of the circular plots. We would also like to thank Ernesto Cabezas, Jeidiel De Leon, Marla Rivera Oliver and Nikol Matos Vergara for their helpful comments on the manuscript. We would additionally like the thank the University of Puerto Rico Puerto Rico Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee for the approval of the animal protocols used for the experiments included in this work in accordance with National Institutes of Health guidelines. The present study was supported by the Craig Neilsen Foundation Grant 124554, the Research Centers in Minority Institution at the University of Puerto Rico—Medical Sciences Campus (RCMI-UPR-MSC) Grant G12RR03051 and a Minority Biomedical Research Support-Research Initiative for Scientific Enhancement (MBRS-RISE) pre-doctoral Grant R25GM061838 to JeanMarie Acevedo-Rosario.

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  1. Institute of Neurobiology and Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of Puerto Rico, Medical Sciences Campus, 201 Boulevard del Valle, San Juan, 00901, Puerto Rico

    Jean Marie Acevedo & Manuel Díaz-Ríos

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  1. Jean Marie Acevedo
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  2. Manuel Díaz-Ríos
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Correspondence to Manuel Díaz-Ríos.

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Acevedo, J.M., Díaz-Ríos, M. Removing sensory input disrupts spinal locomotor activity in the early postnatal period. J Comp Physiol A 199, 1105–1116 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-013-0853-3

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