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Regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates

Neurons in the early stages of processing sensory information suffer transneuronal atrophy when deprived of their activating inputs. For over 40 y, members of our laboratory have studied the reorganization of the somatosensory cortex during and after recovering from different types of sensory loss....

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Autores principales: Qi, Hui-Xin, Reed, Jamie L., Liao, Chia-Chi, Kaas, Jon H.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: National Academy of Sciences 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10242712/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36877853
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2222076120
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author Qi, Hui-Xin
Reed, Jamie L.
Liao, Chia-Chi
Kaas, Jon H.
author_facet Qi, Hui-Xin
Reed, Jamie L.
Liao, Chia-Chi
Kaas, Jon H.
author_sort Qi, Hui-Xin
collection PubMed
description Neurons in the early stages of processing sensory information suffer transneuronal atrophy when deprived of their activating inputs. For over 40 y, members of our laboratory have studied the reorganization of the somatosensory cortex during and after recovering from different types of sensory loss. Here, we took advantage of the preserved histological material from these studies of the cortical effects of sensory loss to evaluate the histological consequences in the cuneate nucleus of the lower brainstem and the adjoining spinal cord. The neurons in the cuneate nucleus are activated by touch on the hand and arm, and relay this activation to the contralateral thalamus, and from the thalamus to the primary somatosensory cortex. Neurons deprived of activating inputs tend to shrink and sometimes die. We considered the effects of differences in species, type and extent of sensory loss, recovery time after injury, and age at the time of injury on the histology of the cuneate nucleus. The results indicate that all injuries that deprived part or all of the cuneate nucleus of sensory activation result in some atrophy of neurons as reflected by a decrease in nucleus size. The extent of the atrophy is greater with greater sensory loss and with longer recovery times. Based on supporting research, atrophy appears to involve a reduction in neuron size and neuropil, with little or no neuron loss. Thus, the potential exists for restoring the hand to cortex pathway with brain–machine interfaces, for bionic prosthetics, or biologically with hand replacement surgery.
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spelling pubmed-102427122023-09-06 Regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates Qi, Hui-Xin Reed, Jamie L. Liao, Chia-Chi Kaas, Jon H. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A Biological Sciences Neurons in the early stages of processing sensory information suffer transneuronal atrophy when deprived of their activating inputs. For over 40 y, members of our laboratory have studied the reorganization of the somatosensory cortex during and after recovering from different types of sensory loss. Here, we took advantage of the preserved histological material from these studies of the cortical effects of sensory loss to evaluate the histological consequences in the cuneate nucleus of the lower brainstem and the adjoining spinal cord. The neurons in the cuneate nucleus are activated by touch on the hand and arm, and relay this activation to the contralateral thalamus, and from the thalamus to the primary somatosensory cortex. Neurons deprived of activating inputs tend to shrink and sometimes die. We considered the effects of differences in species, type and extent of sensory loss, recovery time after injury, and age at the time of injury on the histology of the cuneate nucleus. The results indicate that all injuries that deprived part or all of the cuneate nucleus of sensory activation result in some atrophy of neurons as reflected by a decrease in nucleus size. The extent of the atrophy is greater with greater sensory loss and with longer recovery times. Based on supporting research, atrophy appears to involve a reduction in neuron size and neuropil, with little or no neuron loss. Thus, the potential exists for restoring the hand to cortex pathway with brain–machine interfaces, for bionic prosthetics, or biologically with hand replacement surgery. National Academy of Sciences 2023-03-06 2023-03-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10242712/ /pubmed/36877853 http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2222076120 Text en Copyright © 2023 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Biological Sciences
Qi, Hui-Xin
Reed, Jamie L.
Liao, Chia-Chi
Kaas, Jon H.
Regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates
title Regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates
title_full Regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates
title_fullStr Regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates
title_full_unstemmed Regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates
title_short Regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates
title_sort regressive changes in sizes of somatosensory cuneate nucleus after sensory loss in primates
topic Biological Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10242712/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36877853
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2222076120
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