Neural Plasticity
Vol. 8: Nos. 1-2, 2001
SPECIAL ISSUE
ã 2001, Published by:
Freund & Pettman Publishers
Tel
Aviv/London
Price: $100, including air mail
contents
Editorial: Therapeutic Intervention in Motor Disorders at Young and
Old Age
Neural Compensations
after Lesion of the Cerebral Cortex
B. Kolb, R. Brown, A,
Witt-Lajeunesse, R. Gibb
Normal and Abnormal Development of Motor
Behavior: Lessons from Experiments in Rats
A. Gramsbergen
Early Brain Damage and the Development of
Motor Behavior in Children
M. Hadders-Algra
People with Cerebral
Palsy: Effects of and Perspectives for Treatment
M.J. Mayston
Changes in Muscles and Tendons due to Neural
Motor Disorders
A.L. Hof
Spinal Cord Lesion: Effects of and
Perspectives for Treatment
V. Dietz
Physiology and Pathophysiology of Swallowing
Area of Human Motor Cortex
S. Hamdy, Q. Aziz, D.G. Thompson, J.C. Rothwell
Parkinson’s Disease
K.L. Leenders and
W.H. Oertel
The Motor System: the Whole and its Parts
E. Otten
Exercise and Training to Optimize Functional
Motor Performance in Stroke
R.B. Shepherd
Adaptability and Flexibility of the Human
Motor System
T. Mulder and J.
Hochstenbach
Discussion:
Possibilities for Therapeutic Intervention
In June 2000, a meeting was held in Groningen, the Netherlands on ‘Therapeutical interventions in motor disorders: Neural mechanisms and clinical efficacy’. The congress was a true meeting of neuroscientists who presented recent findings on mechanisms playing a role in various forms of motor disorders and clinicians involved in neuro-rehabilitation. The present special issue of Neural Plasticity contains the main contributions to this meeting. The issue concludes with an edited version of the lively discussion held at the end of the meeting. The first paper, by Kolb and colleagues, presents an overview of recent research on plastic changes after lesions of the cerebral cortex in young and adult rats, followed by four papers on motor disorders acquired at early age. Gramsbergen reviews the neural and behavioral consequences of lesions of the central and peripheral nervous system, stressing the impact of the age at which the lesion is acquired. Hadders-Algra indicates that the neuronal Group Selection Theory (NGST) could offer new insights into the mechanisms directing developmental motor disorders, thereby facilitating the development of effective intervention strategies. Mayston provides a detailed overview on the heterogeneity of motor disorders in children with cerebral palsy and discusses possible therapeutical approaches for each of these disorders. The clinically highly relevant issue of how primary neurogenic problems, such as muscle dyscoordination and hyper-tonia can be disentangled from secondary myogenic ones is addressed the paper of Hof, the final paper of the developmental section. The section on motor disorders in adulthood contains three general and three specific papers, the latter dealing with spinal cord lesion, stroke, and Parkinson’s disease. Dietz addresses the neuromotor consequences of spinal cord lesions. Hamdy et al. describes central reorganization after stroke of circuitries involved in the control of swallowing. Leenders and Oertel report on recent advances in the understanding and treatment of Parkinson’s disease. Central issues in the more generally oriented papers of Otten, Shepherd, and Mulder & Hochstenbach are the complex nature of motor control and the dependency of motor behavior in health and disease on environmental context.
The papers of this special issue reveal that our understanding of reorganizational processes in the nervous system occurring in various motor disorders is only in its infancy. This implies not only that our repertoire of current knowledge is relatively limited but also that it has a vigorous potential to grow. This is illustrated by some promising perspectives that have opened in the recent past. For example, neurons that continue to proliferate in the adult central nervous system might be recruited in compensational processes, and new pharmacological strategies and technologies derived from stem-cell research might help to either slow down or stop disorders like Parkinson’s disease. In addition, we might find ways in pediatric habilitation to exploit the reorganizational capacities of the young nervous system. The possibilities are promising and exciting and form the feeding fuel on the long route to the full understanding and the development of effective intervention therapies. The route consists of multi-disciplinary research in fields ranging from molecular neurobiology to neurorehabilitation, with a major role for studies using the techniques of systems physiology.
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