frogs are a widely used organism to study aspects of modern biology ( Harland and Grainger, 2011). Its central nervous system is particularly interesting, because in certain stages of metamorphosis the spinal cord can regenerate after injury and recover swimming. With this in mind, automatic gait analysis could help evaluate the regenerative performance by means of a method that automatically and quantitatively establishes the degree in froglets' limb movement. Here, we present an algorithm that characterizes spinal cord damage in froglets. The proposed method tracks the position of the limbs throughout videos and extracts kinematic features, which posteriorly serve to differentiate froglets with different levels of damage to the spinal cord. The detection algorithm and kinematic features chosen were validated in a pattern recognition experiment in which 90 videos (divided equally in three classes: uninjured, hemisected and transected) were classified. We conclude that our system is effective in the characterization of damage to the spinal cord through video analysis of a swimming froglet with a 97% accuracy. These results potentially validate this methodology to automatically compare the recovery of spinal cord function after different treatments without the need to manually process videos. In addition, the procedure could be used to measure the kinematics and behavioral response of froglets to different experimental conditions such as nutritional state, stress, genetic background and age.
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1242/bio.042960 | DOI Listing |
Cell Rep
January 2025
Department of Medical Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS B3H 4R2, Canada. Electronic address:
While considerable progress has been made in understanding the neuronal circuits that underlie the patterning of locomotor behaviors, less is known about the circuits that amplify motoneuron output to adjust muscle force. Here, we demonstrate that propriospinal V3 neurons (Sim1) account for ∼20% of excitatory input to motoneurons across hindlimb muscles. V3 neurons also form extensive connections among themselves and with other excitatory premotor neurons, such as V2a neurons.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFJ Spinal Cord Med
January 2025
Department of Physical Therapy, Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences, Ibaraki, Japan.
Objective: We investigated the construct validity, responsiveness, and interpretability of the Spinal Cord Injury Functional Ambulation Inventory (SCI-FAI) to determine its usefulness in measuring the functional level of gait.
Patients And Methods: This was a prospective observational study following the checklist of the Consensus-Based Standards for Selecting Health Measurement Instruments. The SCI-FAI consists of three items: Gait Parameter, Assistive Devices, and Temporal.
Neurourol Urodyn
January 2025
Department of Neurology, Hochzirl Hospital, Zirl, Austria.
Introduction: Neurogenic bladder dysfunction is a prevalent condition characterized by impaired bladder control resulting from neurological conditions, for example, spinal cord injury or traumatic brain injury (TBI). Detrusor overactivity is a typical symptom of central nervous system damage. A lesion affecting the pontine neural network typically results in loss of tonic inhibition exerted by the pontine micturition center and causes involuntary detrusor contractions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPM R
January 2025
Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota, USA.
Background: Individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) commonly have autonomic dysreflexia (AD) with increased sympathetic activity. After SCI, individuals have decreased baroreflex sensitivity and increased vascular responsiveness.
Objective: To evaluate the relationship between baroreflex and blood vessel sensitivity with AD symptoms.
Clin Exp Immunol
January 2025
Centre for Inflammation Research, Institute for Regeneration and Repair, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK.
Introduction: Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a complex auto-inflammatory disease affecting the brain and spinal cord, which results in axonal de-myelination and symptoms including fatigue, pain, and difficulties with vision and mobility. The involvement of the immune system in the pathology of MS is well established, particularly the adaptive T cell response, and there has been a particular focus on the IL-17-producing subset of Th17 cells and their role in driving disease. However, the importance of innate immune cells has not been so well characterised.
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