Spinal Cord fMRI: A New Window into the Central Nervous System.

With the brain, the spinal cord forms the central nervous system. Initially considered a passive relay between the brain and the periphery, the spinal cord is now recognized as being active and plastic. Yet, it remains largely overlooked by the human neuroscience community, in stark contrast with the wealth of research investigating the brain.

Post-stroke reorganization of transient brain activity characterizes deficits and recovery of cognitive functions.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been widely employed to study stroke pathophysiology. In particular, analyses of fMRI signals at rest were directed at quantifying the impact of stroke on spatial features of brain networks. However, brain networks have intrinsic time features that were, so far, disregarded in these analyses.

Activity-dependent spinal cord neuromodulation rapidly restores trunk and leg motor functions after complete paralysis.

Epidural electrical stimulation (EES) targeting the dorsal roots of lumbosacral segments restores walking in people with spinal cord injury (SCI). However, EES is delivered with multielectrode paddle leads that were originally designed to target the dorsal column of the spinal cord. Here, we hypothesized that an arrangement of electrodes targeting the ensemble of dorsal roots involved in leg and trunk movements would result in superior efficacy, restoring more diverse motor activities after the most severe SCI.

Towards reliable spinal cord fMRI: Assessment of common imaging protocols.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has revolutionized the investigation of brain function. Similar approaches can be translated to probe spinal mechanisms. However, imaging the spinal cord remains challenging, notably due to its size and location.

Dynamic Functional Connectivity of Resting-State Spinal Cord fMRI Reveals Fine-Grained Intrinsic Architecture.

The neuroimaging community has shown tremendous interest in exploring the brain's spontaneous activity using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). On the contrary, the spinal cord has been largely overlooked despite its pivotal role in processing sensorimotor signals. Only a handful of studies have probed the organization of spinal resting-state fluctuations, always using static measures of connectivity.

A multimodal approach to capture post-stroke temporal dynamics of recovery.

Objective: Several training programs have been developed in the past to restore motor functions after stroke. Their efficacy strongly relies on the possibility to assess individual levels of impairment and recovery rate. However, commonly used clinical scales rely mainly on subjective functional assessments and are not able to provide a complete description of patients' neuro-biomechanical status.

Motor improvement estimation and task adaptation for personalized robot-aided therapy: a feasibility study.

Background: In the past years, robotic systems have become increasingly popular in upper limb rehabilitation. Nevertheless, clinical studies have so far not been able to confirm superior efficacy of robotic therapy over conventional methods. The personalization of robot-aided therapy according to the patients' individual motor deficits has been suggested as a pivotal step to improve the clinical outcome of such approaches.

Functional imaging of rostrocaudal spinal activity during upper limb motor tasks.

The spinal cord is the main interface between the brain and the periphery. It notably plays a central role in motor control, as spinal motoneurons activate skeletal muscles involved in voluntary movements. Yet, the spinal mechanisms underlying human movement generation have not been completely elucidated.

Balancing the playing field: collaborative gaming for physical training.

Background: Multiplayer video games promoting exercise-based rehabilitation may facilitate motor learning, by increasing motivation through social interaction. However, a major design challenge is to enable meaningful inter-subject interaction, whilst allowing for significant skill differences between players. We present a novel motor-training paradigm that allows real-time collaboration and performance enhancement, across a wide range of inter-subject skill mismatches, including disabled vs.