Spinal microcircuits comprising dI3 interneurons are necessary for motor functional recovery following spinal cord transection

The spinal cord has the capacity to coordinate motor activities such as locomotion. Following spinal transection, functional activity can be regained, to a degree, following motor training. To identify microcircuits involved in this recovery, we studied a population of mouse spinal interneurons know...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2016-12, Vol.5
Main Authors: Bui, Tuan V, Stifani, Nicolas, Akay, Turgay, Brownstone, Robert M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animals
Circuits
comparator neurons
Fitness equipment
Interneurons
Interneurons - physiology
Kinematics
Locomotion
Locomotor activity
Mice
Motor Activity
motor learning
Motor neurons
Nervous system
Neural circuitry
Neural Pathways - physiology
Neuroscience
Neurosciences
Physiological aspects
Population studies
Recovery (Medical)
Recovery of function
Rodents
Running
Sensory neurons
sensory prediction error
Spinal cord injuries
Spinal Cord Injuries - physiopathology
spinal cord injury
Spinal Cord Regeneration
Standard deviation
Surgery
Synaptic transmission
treadmill training
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Summary:The spinal cord has the capacity to coordinate motor activities such as locomotion. Following spinal transection, functional activity can be regained, to a degree, following motor training. To identify microcircuits involved in this recovery, we studied a population of mouse spinal interneurons known to receive direct afferent inputs and project to intermediate and ventral regions of the spinal cord. We demonstrate that while dI3 interneurons are not necessary for normal locomotor activity, locomotor circuits rhythmically inhibit them and dI3 interneurons can activate these circuits. Removing dI3 interneurons from spinal microcircuits by eliminating their synaptic transmission left locomotion more or less unchanged, but abolished functional recovery, indicating that dI3 interneurons are a necessary cellular substrate for motor system plasticity following transection. We suggest that dI3 interneurons compare inputs from locomotor circuits with sensory afferent inputs to compute sensory prediction errors that then modify locomotor circuits to effect motor recovery.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.21715