Séminaire CEMO: The activation of the locomotor central pattern generator modulates the excitability of dorsal networks

IONS

The next CEMO seminar is entitled "the activation of the locomotor central pattern generator modulates the excitability of dorsal networks". It will be presented by the researcher Nejada Dingu who comes from Udine University, in Italy. She has been invited by the neuropharmacology research group.

In her abstract, she reminds us that “The timing and pattern of rhythmic, stereotyped and coordinated muscle activities are controlled by specific neural cicuits, called central pattern generators. There are  different types of CPGs that underlie different motor programs. CPGs controlling locomotion are located in the ventral spinal cord and consists in networks of interneurons that determine appropriate sequences of flexors/extensors activation during gait or running. The existence of the locomotor CPG has been demonstrated in the in vitro preparation of the isolated spinal cord by the possibility to induce a rhythm of fictive locomotion. Fictive locomotion corresponds to a characteristic response recorded from the spinal ventral roots that consists in the generation of rhythmically alternated locomotor cycles between specific pairs of ventral roots. Experimentally, it is possible to induce a fictive locomotion, and thus the activation of the locomotor CPG, using pharmacological or electrical protocols. In particular, the innovative electrical stimulating protocol FListim has proven to be very effective in evoking episodes of FL, since it can optimally activate the locomotor CPG at much lower intensities of stimulation than canonical electrical square pulses. In our work we have demonstrated how the activation or the modulation of the activity of the locomotor CPG, in turn, can have an effect on the frequency and amplitude of dorsal root discharges.”

For more detail, the seminar will take place at 12:00 in Room Harvey 1 on tuesday the 10th June

Publié le 10 juin 2013