Restorative Neurology of Spinal Cord Injury

Following injury or disease, neural circuitry can be altered to varying degrees leading to highly individualized characteristics that may or may not resemble original function. In addition, lost or partially damaged circuits and the effects of biological recovery processes coupled with learned compensatory strategies create a new neuroanatomy with capabilities that are often not functional or may interfere with daily life. To date, the majority of approaches used to treat neurological dysfunction have focused on the replacement of lost or damaged function, usually through the suppression of surviving neural activity and the application of mechanical assistive devices. Restorative Neurology of Spinal Cord Injury offers a different and novel approach. Focusing on the spinal cord and its role in motor control, the book details the clinical and neurophysiological assessment process and methods developed throughout the past half century by basic and clinical scientists. Then, through the use of specialized clinical and neurophysiological testing methods, conduction and processing performed within the surviving neural circuitry is examined and characterized in detail. Based on the results of such assessment, treatment strategies, also described in this book, are applied to augment, rather than replace, the performance of surviving neural circuitry and improve the functional capacity of people who have experienced injury to their spinal cords. * Promotes restorative neurology, which is based on the assessment of residual motor control after spinal cord injury. * Describes how to apply restorative intervention in order to improve motor control * Imaginative and optimistic in its approach to spinal cord injury Milan R. Dimitrijevic , Principle Investigator of Foundation for Movement Recovery, Oslo Norway, Emeritus Professor, Baylor College of Medicine, Edited by Byron A. Kakulas , Medical Director, Australian Neuromuscular Research Institute, Australia, Edited by W. Barry McKay , Research Scientist, Norton Neuroscience Institute, and Edited by Gerta Vrbova , Emeritus Professor, Division of Developmental Neuroscience, University College London, Visiting Professor, Royal Veterinary College, UK CONTENTS Foreword Preface Chapter 1 - Residual motor function after spinal cord injury Chapter 2 - Neurophysiological principles for the assessment of residual motor control below the spinal cord injury in humans Chapter 3 - Restorative neurology of motor control after spinal cord injury: clinical practice Chapter 4 - Neural control of locomotion Chapter 5 - Summary of strategies used to repair the injured spinal cord Chapter 6 - The reconstructive neurosurgery of spinal injury Chapter 7 - Criteria for biological interventions for spinal cord injury Chapter 8 - Neurophysiological assessment of human motor control and changes caused by spinal cord injury Chapter 9 - Neurophysiologic monitoring of the human spinal cord functional integrity during surgical interventions Chapter 10 - Transcutaneous lumbar posterior root stimulation for motor control studies and modification of motor activity after spinal cord injury Epilogue Appendix I - A manual for the neurophysiological assessment of motor control: The Brain Motor Control Assessment (BMCA) Protocolpages Appendix II - Academic environment for the development of human motor control in Ljubljana