Medical Student Research Fellowship for Summer 2003

Mentor: Keith E. Tansey, MD, PhD
Department: Neurology
Room number: L1.120
Mail Code: 8897
Phone number: 89732
E-mail: keith.tansey@utsouthwestern.edu
Project title: Plasticity in Spinal Circuits after Injury

Human subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

Animal subjects IRB approved project number (where applicable):

0971-02-04-1, 0971-02-02-1

Project Type (patient-based research, animal-based research, or basic research; this characterization is only to permit a general classification for grouping similar types of projects) Animal-based

Brief Description of Project:

The spinal circuits for muscle stretch and pain reflexes are altered after spinal cord injury either because of disruption of supraspinal inputs to the reflex circuit or because of partial interruption of the reflex circuit itself. In incomplete spinal cord injury, some recovery of function is seen overtime and may be improved with rehabilitative training or with pharmacological intervention. We are interested in determining the physiological nature of this spinal plasticity and initially plan to study the effect of injury severity and recovery time on these reflexes. In this project, control and spinal cord contused animals will be surgically prepared so that a specific pain and several muscle stretch reflexes can be studied using quantitative electrophysiological methods.

Previous Research Activities or Publications with Medical Students:

Yang, C., Judy, J.W., Edgerton, V.R., and Tansey, K., Spatial and temporal studies of activation in the lumbosacral spinal cord using implantable multimicroelectrode arrays. Abstracts, 32nd Annual Neural Prothesis Workshop, NIH/NINDS, 2001

Return to UT Southwestern Homepage

Return to Student Research Projects Index