Sunday, May 17, 2009

Injury induced dendritic plasticity in the mature central nervous system

by Matylda Macias

Sometimes this relatively stable situation can be made more plastic even in mature CNS.
One of the stimuli, which can induce it, is damage, which leads to destruction of existing connections.

Several studies have shown that cortical injury by itself enhances the plastic potential of cortical dendrites in peri-infarct and in contralateral, unaffected homotopic areas (Kolb and Gibb 1991, Jones and Schallert 1992).

Post injury dendritic arborization is entirely dependent on maintenance of the ipsilateral (unaffected) forelimb activity.

Dendritic arborization necessary for the recovery.
Recovery is activity-dependent.

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