The mystery of the human spinal cord and its impact on our body

Understanding our nervous system allows us to move and learn new sports such as walking or swimming.

Tuan Bui, member of the Ottawa Institute of Brain and Thinking, associate professor of the Department of Biology, director of the Neuromotor Circuit Laboratory, and the corresponding author of this article, said: "Understanding how the spinal cord controls our body is for improving the treatment of movement disorders caused by neurological damage or disease.

"Recent studies describe the swimming behavior of growing zebrafish and the spinal cord neurons that appear during these developmental stages

"The spinal cord is an elongated tubular structure that extends from the brainstem to the lower part of the spine

"In the early stages of development, new neurons in the spinal cord will be formed, and new connections will be formed between spinal cord neurons

"We have established computational models of the spinal cord at different developmental stages

"We also determined the repetitive neural activity patterns in different actions

"Our model will identify the new functions of different neurons in the spinal cord that are involved in promoting movement

Yann Roussel, Stephanie F Gaudreau, Emily R Kacer, Mohini Sengupta, Tuan V Bui.