Professor Ronaldo Ichiyama (University of Leeds): 'Recovering function after spinal cord injuries' School of Psychology and Neuroscience Seminar

Ronaldo Ichiyama, Professor in Neural Control of Movement, Director of Postgraduate Study and Head of Graduate School, Faculty of Biological Sciences at the School of Biomedical Sciences, University of Leeds, will be giving an in-person seminar entitled ‘Recovering function after spinal cord injuries: plasticity, neuroregeneration and neurorehabilitation', hosted by Simon Sharples and Gareth Miles.

Abstract: Locomotor training and other physiotherapy interventions following spinal cord injuries (SCI) induces changes in the spinal networks controlling stepping, which correlate with improved stepping ability and function. The underlying mechanisms associated with such functional improvements are only sparsely known. Understanding such changes will lead to better and more efficient interventions to maximise the benefits of training for rehabilitative purposes. Such interventions are less effective in severe injuries and this research has demonstrated that application of epidural electrical stimulation (EES) results in significant recovery of locomotor function. However, functional recovery afforded by EES and rehabilitation are incomplete and do not lead to neural regeneration.

Treatment of SCI will require a combination of several interventions to achieve physiological and functional regeneration and recovery. Professor Ichiyama will also discuss the results of several studies combining plasticity enhancing strategies with locomotor training after SCI, combining anti-Nogo-A antibody, Chondroitinase ABC, mesenchymal cells secretome, etc., with EES and locomotor training resulting in both reorganisation of neural circuits and significant recovery of function.

Supported by the International Spinal Research Trust, the Medical Research Council, Wings for Life, the Royal Society and the International Foundation for Paraplegia.