The Circuitry of the Human Spinal Cord

Studies of human movement have proliferated in recent years. This greatly expanded and thoroughly updated reference surveys the literature on the corticospinal control of spinal cord circuits in human subjects, showing how different circuits can be studied, their role in normal movement and how they malfunction in disease states. Chapters are highly illustrated and consistently organised, reviewing, for each pathway, the experimental background, methodology, organisation and control, role during motor tasks and changes in patients with CNS lesions. Each chapter concludes with a helpful resume that can be used independently of the main text to provide practical guidance for clinical studies. The final four chapters bring together the changes in transmission in spinal and corticospinal pathways during movement and how they contribute to the desired movement. This book is essential reading for research workers and clinicians involved in the study, treatment and rehabilitation of movement disorders.Preface; List of abbreviations; 1. General methodology; 2. Monosynaptic Ia excitation, homosynaptic depression, and transcortical Ia excitation; 3. Fusimotor mechanisms, muscle spindles and their role in the control of movement; 4. Recurrent inhibition; 5. Reciprocal Ia inhibition; 6. Ib pathways; 7. Group II pathways; 8. Presynaptic inhibition of Ia terminals; 9. Cutaneomuscular, withdrawal and flexor reflex afferent ('FRA') responses; 10. Propriospinal transmission of descending motor commands; 11. Spinal and corticospinal pathways in different movements; 12. Spinal and corticospinal pathways in stance and gait; 13. Plasticity in spinal and corticospinal pathways; 14. Contribution of spinal pathways to the pathophysiology of movement disorders; Index.