1st Edition

Motor Neurobiology of the Spinal Cord

Edited By Timothy C. Cope Copyright 2001
    360 Pages 130 B/W Illustrations
    by CRC Press

    Traumatic injuries of the spinal cord continue to be the most common cause of permanent paralysis in young adults in the United States. New information has emerged on the response of spinal neurons to injury of either the spinal cord or peripheral nerves demonstrating that dendrites of injured motoneurons take on characteristics of axons. These and other new developments have helped to promote an exciting new era in the study of spinal cord neurobiology.

    Motor Neurobiology of the Spinal Cord provides a description of the recent conceptual and technical advances in the field. It provides a description of the new experimental tools available for investigating the neuronal properties that allow populations of spinal cord neurons to control muscles responsible for limb movements and posture. It covers topics ranging from genetics to kinematics and examines cells, tissues, or whole animals in species ranging from fish to humans that are normal, injured, or diseased.

    By integrating data derived from many new approaches, you'll learn about how spinal cord circuits operate under a variety conditions and about new and exciting inroads being made in motor neurobiology of the spinal cord. Motor Neurobiology of the Spinal Cord elucidates concepts and principles relevant to function and structure throughout the nervous system and presents information about changes induced by injury and disease.

    Optical and Genetic Approaches Toward Understanding Spinal Circuits, J. Fetcho
    Spinal Motoneurons: Synaptic Inputs and Receptor Organization, R. Fyffe
    5-HT Receptors and the Neuromodulatory Control of Spinal Cord Function, S. Hochman, S.M. Garraway, D. W. Machacek, and B.L. Shay
    Advances in Measuring Active Dendrite Currents in Spinal Motoneurons in Vivo, C.J. Heckman and R.H. Lee
    Investigating the Synaptic Control of Human Motoneurons: New Techniques, Analyses, and Insights from Animal Models, R. K. Powers and K.S. Türker
    The Use of Correlational Methods to Investigate the Organization of Spinal Networks for Pattern Generation, T. Hamm, M.L. McCurdy, T.V. Trank, and V.V. Turkin
    Sensory-Motor Experience During the Development of Motility in Chick Embryos, A.A. Sharp and A. Bekoff
    Transformation of Descending Commands into Muscle Activity by Spinal Interneurons in Behaving Primates, S.I. Perlmutter and Y. Prut
    Muscle Afferent Feedback During Human Walking, T. Sinkjær, J.B. Nielsin, M. Voigt, M. Ladoccur, M. Grey, and J.B. Andersen
    Canine Motor Neuron Disease: A View from the Motor Unit, M.J. Pinter, T.C. Cope, L.C. Cork, S.L. Green, and M.M. Rich
    Structural Plasticity of Motoneuron Dendrites Caused by Axotomy, P. Kenneth Rose, V. MacDermid and M. Neuber-Hess
    How Nerve Injury Strengthens Ia-motoneuron Synapses, T.C. Cope, K. Seburn, and C. R. Buck
    The Organization of Distributed Proprioceptive Feedback in the Chronic Spinal Cat, T.R. Nichols and T. C. Cope

    Biography

    Timothy C. Cope is a professor of physiology and a member of the Neuroscience Program at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he lives with his wife, Meredith and children Russ, Audrey, and Cassie. He earned B.S. and M.S. degrees from the University of California at Los Angeles and a Ph.D. in physiology from Duke University in 1980. Following postdoctoral studies at the University of Washington and the University of California at Los Angeles from 1980–1983, he held faculty positions at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical School and at Hahnemann University.

    "…an update on the recent advances of the biology of the motor spinal cord…The authors clearly meet their objectives…a very good book…well-written…3 stars."
    - Celso Agner, MSc, MD, Albany Medical Center, Doody's Notes