How to repair the injured spinal cord is a question that scientists have struggled with for decades. The answer is of course still a mystery. But ask people on the street for their opinion and they will likely offer something like “stem cells” as the solution. I find it amusing (and honestly, a bit annoying) that family and friends continue to ask me if there is anything new with stem cells. My...

Introduction: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a heterogeneous group of neurodevelopmental disorders that are defined with a wide range of behavioral impairments including social and communication deficits. Apart from these core symptoms, a significant number of ASD individuals display higher levels of anxiety. The present study is designed to understand the antioxidant efficacy of hesperetin...

Following spinal cord injury (SCI) neurons caudal to the injury are capable of rhythmic locomotor-related activity that can form the basis for substantial functional recovery of stepping despite the loss of crucial brain stem-derived neuromodulators like serotonin (5-HT). Here we investigated the contribution of constitutive 5-HT(2) receptor activity (activity in the absence of 5-HT) to locomot...

Lumbar spinal stenosis (LSS) causes ischemia, inflammation, demyelination and results in dysfunction of the cauda equina (CE), leading to pain and locomotor functional deficits. We investigated whether exogenous administration of S-nitrosoglutathione (GSNO), an endogenous redox modulating anti-neuroinflammatory agent, hastens functional recovery in a CE compression (CEC) rat model. CEC was indu...

The mixed dopamine (DA) agonist/antagonist terguride acts as a DA antagonist on normosensitive receptors but shows DA agonistic properties at supersensitive DA receptors. Such a compound could offer an alternative to the treatment of Parkinson's disease with indirect or direct DA agonists. The present study compares the actions of terguride, 4-12 mg/kg i.p., in naive common marmosets with its e...

the present study investigated the effects of 8-weeks of core stability training on fundamental movement skills in children with low proficiency in both locomotor and object control skills. by using a semi-experimental research design. 30 elementary boy students (means age= 8.89 years, sd= 1.06) were recruited and organized in training (n= 15) and control group (n=15). fundamental movement skil...

How to repair the injured spinal cord is a question that scientists have struggled with for decades. The answer is of course still a mystery. But ask people on the street for their opinion and they will likely offer something like “stem cells” as the solution. I find it amusing (and honestly, a bit annoying) that family and friends continue to ask me if there is anything new with stem cells. My...

Foraging by mammals is a complex suite of behaviors that can entail high energetic costs associated with supporting basal metabolism, locomotion and the digestion of prey. To determine the contribution of these various costs in a free-ranging marine mammal, we measured the post-dive oxygen consumption of adult Weddell seals (N=9) performing foraging and non-foraging dives from an isolated ice h...

Inflammation in general and proteinases generated as a result are likely mediators of early secondary pathogenesis after spinal cord injury. We report that matrix metalloproteinase-9 (MMP-9) plays an important role in blood-spinal cord barrier dysfunction, inflammation, and locomotor recovery. MMP-9 was present in the meninges and neurons of the uninjured cord. MMP-9 increased rapidly after a m...

Unilateral peripheral vestibular disorder (UPVD) causes deficient locomotor responses to novel environments due to a lack of accurate vestibular sensory information, increasing fall risk. This study aimed to examine recovery response (stability recovery actions) and adaptive feedback potential in dynamic stability of UPVD-patients and healthy control subjects during perturbed walking. 17 UPVD-p...