Hormones released after brain damage can cause movement problems on the left and right sides of the body

Hormones are one of the main ways the body controls its countless functions

Their findings were published in the journal eLife, entitled "Left and right side-specific endocrine signals supplement neural pathways and mediate acute asymmetric effects of brain injury

The researchers wrote: "Brain injury interrupts the descending nerve pathways that transmit motor neurons from the cortex to spinal cord motor neurons

Recent studies have shown that injecting certain hormones into mice without brain damage can cause a movement response similar to the movement defect on one side of the human body

The researchers studied the effects of unilateral brain injury in mice that lacked connections between the brain and the nerves that control the hind limbs

Two pituitary hormones-endorphin and arginine vasopressin seem to play a role

Next, they tested what would happen if the rats were given left brain injury drugs to prevent the effects of these two hormones

Bakarkin concluded: "These observations indicate that the endocrine system in the blood may be selectively targeted to the left and right sides of the animal body through hormones