Research sheds new light on spinal cord function

Spine

The spinal cord contributes to complex hand functions, according to a study in Nature Neuroscience and reported by Western News.

London, Canada-based Western University researchers found the spinal cord generates a "stretch reflex" that control the hand's positioning in space. Researchers used robotic technology, a three degree of freedom exoskeleton, where they asked subjects to maintain their hand in a target position. The robot then bumped it away by flexing or extending the wrist and elbow. Researchers measured the time it took for subjects' elbow and wrist muscles to respond to the disruption and whether those responses helped bring the hand back to the initial target. 

Researchers measured lag in subjects' responses and determined the processing happened in the spinal cord, not the brain. "We found that these responses happen so quickly that the only place that they could be generated from is the spinal circuits themselves," lead research Jeff Weiler, PhD, told Western News. "These spinal circuits don't really care about what’s happening at the individual joints — they care about where the hand is in the external world and generate a response that tries to put the hand back to where it came from."

The spinal cord-generated response is called a "stretch reflex" and was previously thought to have a limited role affecting movement.

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