Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection
Locomotion is controlled by spinal circuits that interact with supraspinal drives and sensory feedback from the limbs. These sensorimotor interactions are disrupted following spinal cord injury. The thoracic lateral hemisection represents an experimental model of an incomplete spinal cord injury, wh...
Saved in:
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
eLife Sciences Publications Ltd
2025-01-01
|
| Series: | eLife |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://elifesciences.org/articles/103504 |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| _version_ | 1832584351275024384 |
|---|---|
| author | Ilya A Rybak Natalia A Shevtsova Johannie Audet Sirine Yassine Sergey N Markin Boris I Prilutsky Alain Frigon |
| author_facet | Ilya A Rybak Natalia A Shevtsova Johannie Audet Sirine Yassine Sergey N Markin Boris I Prilutsky Alain Frigon |
| author_sort | Ilya A Rybak |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Locomotion is controlled by spinal circuits that interact with supraspinal drives and sensory feedback from the limbs. These sensorimotor interactions are disrupted following spinal cord injury. The thoracic lateral hemisection represents an experimental model of an incomplete spinal cord injury, where connections between the brain and spinal cord are abolished on one side of the cord. To investigate the effects of such an injury on the operation of the spinal locomotor network, we used our computational model of cat locomotion recently published in eLife (Rybak et al., 2024) to investigate and predict changes in cycle and phase durations following a thoracic lateral hemisection during treadmill locomotion in tied-belt (equal left-right speeds) and split-belt (unequal left-right speeds) conditions. In our simulations, the ‘hemisection’ was always applied to the right side. Based on our model, we hypothesized that following hemisection the contralesional (‘intact’, left) side of the spinal network is mostly controlled by supraspinal drives, whereas the ipsilesional (‘hemisected’, right) side is mostly controlled by somatosensory feedback. We then compared the simulated results with those obtained during experiments in adult cats before and after a mid-thoracic lateral hemisection on the right side in the same locomotor conditions. Our experimental results confirmed many effects of hemisection on cat locomotion predicted by our simulations. We show that having the ipsilesional hindlimb step on the slow belt, but not the fast belt, during split-belt locomotion substantially reduces the effects of lateral hemisection. The model provides explanations for changes in temporal characteristics of hindlimb locomotion following hemisection based on altered interactions between spinal circuits, supraspinal drives, and somatosensory feedback. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-e61db7174e7941e3bc5aca78bddf24a6 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2050-084X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | eLife Sciences Publications Ltd |
| record_format | Article |
| series | eLife |
| spelling | doaj-art-e61db7174e7941e3bc5aca78bddf24a62025-01-27T14:14:44ZengeLife Sciences Publications LtdeLife2050-084X2025-01-011310.7554/eLife.103504Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisectionIlya A Rybak0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3461-349XNatalia A Shevtsova1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1971-9707Johannie Audet2Sirine Yassine3Sergey N Markin4Boris I Prilutsky5https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0499-3890Alain Frigon6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9259-2706Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy, College of Medicine, Drexel University, Philadelphia, United StatesDepartment of Neurobiology and Anatomy, College of Medicine, Drexel University, Philadelphia, United StatesDepartment of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Centre de Recherche du CHUS, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, CanadaDepartment of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Centre de Recherche du CHUS, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, CanadaDepartment of Neurobiology and Anatomy, College of Medicine, Drexel University, Philadelphia, United StatesSchool of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, United StatesDepartment of Pharmacology-Physiology, Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, Centre de Recherche du CHUS, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, CanadaLocomotion is controlled by spinal circuits that interact with supraspinal drives and sensory feedback from the limbs. These sensorimotor interactions are disrupted following spinal cord injury. The thoracic lateral hemisection represents an experimental model of an incomplete spinal cord injury, where connections between the brain and spinal cord are abolished on one side of the cord. To investigate the effects of such an injury on the operation of the spinal locomotor network, we used our computational model of cat locomotion recently published in eLife (Rybak et al., 2024) to investigate and predict changes in cycle and phase durations following a thoracic lateral hemisection during treadmill locomotion in tied-belt (equal left-right speeds) and split-belt (unequal left-right speeds) conditions. In our simulations, the ‘hemisection’ was always applied to the right side. Based on our model, we hypothesized that following hemisection the contralesional (‘intact’, left) side of the spinal network is mostly controlled by supraspinal drives, whereas the ipsilesional (‘hemisected’, right) side is mostly controlled by somatosensory feedback. We then compared the simulated results with those obtained during experiments in adult cats before and after a mid-thoracic lateral hemisection on the right side in the same locomotor conditions. Our experimental results confirmed many effects of hemisection on cat locomotion predicted by our simulations. We show that having the ipsilesional hindlimb step on the slow belt, but not the fast belt, during split-belt locomotion substantially reduces the effects of lateral hemisection. The model provides explanations for changes in temporal characteristics of hindlimb locomotion following hemisection based on altered interactions between spinal circuits, supraspinal drives, and somatosensory feedback.https://elifesciences.org/articles/103504locomotioncentral pattern generatorspinal cord injurycomputational modelcat |
| spellingShingle | Ilya A Rybak Natalia A Shevtsova Johannie Audet Sirine Yassine Sergey N Markin Boris I Prilutsky Alain Frigon Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection eLife locomotion central pattern generator spinal cord injury computational model cat |
| title | Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection |
| title_full | Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection |
| title_fullStr | Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection |
| title_full_unstemmed | Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection |
| title_short | Operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied-belt and split-belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection |
| title_sort | operation of spinal sensorimotor circuits controlling phase durations during tied belt and split belt locomotion after a lateral thoracic hemisection |
| topic | locomotion central pattern generator spinal cord injury computational model cat |
| url | https://elifesciences.org/articles/103504 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT ilyaarybak operationofspinalsensorimotorcircuitscontrollingphasedurationsduringtiedbeltandsplitbeltlocomotionafteralateralthoracichemisection AT nataliaashevtsova operationofspinalsensorimotorcircuitscontrollingphasedurationsduringtiedbeltandsplitbeltlocomotionafteralateralthoracichemisection AT johannieaudet operationofspinalsensorimotorcircuitscontrollingphasedurationsduringtiedbeltandsplitbeltlocomotionafteralateralthoracichemisection AT sirineyassine operationofspinalsensorimotorcircuitscontrollingphasedurationsduringtiedbeltandsplitbeltlocomotionafteralateralthoracichemisection AT sergeynmarkin operationofspinalsensorimotorcircuitscontrollingphasedurationsduringtiedbeltandsplitbeltlocomotionafteralateralthoracichemisection AT borisiprilutsky operationofspinalsensorimotorcircuitscontrollingphasedurationsduringtiedbeltandsplitbeltlocomotionafteralateralthoracichemisection AT alainfrigon operationofspinalsensorimotorcircuitscontrollingphasedurationsduringtiedbeltandsplitbeltlocomotionafteralateralthoracichemisection |