(Press-News.org) HOUSTON – (July 11, 2024) – Implantable technologies have significantly improved our ability to study and even modulate the activity of neurons in the brain, but neurons in the spinal cord are harder to study in action.
“If we understood exactly how neurons in the spinal cord process sensation and control movement, we could develop better treatments for spinal cord disease and injury,” said Yu Wu, a research scientist who is part of a team of Rice University neuroengineers working on a solution to this problem.
“We developed a tiny sensor, spinalNET, that records the electrical activity of spinal neurons as the subject performs normal activity without any restraint,” said Wu, who is the lead author on a study about the sensor published in Cell Reports. “Being able to extract such knowledge is a first but important step to develop cures for millions of people suffering from spinal cord diseases.”
According to the study, the sensor was used to record neuronal activity in the spinal cord of freely moving mice for prolonged periods and with great resolution, even tracking the same neuron over multiple days.
“Up until now, the spinal cord has been more or less a black box,” said Lan Luan, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and a corresponding author on the study. “The issue is that the spinal cord moves so much during normal activity. Every time you turn your head or bend over, spinal neurons are also moving.”
During such movements, rigid sensors implanted in the spinal cord inevitably disturb or even damage the fragile tissue. SpinalNET, however, is over a hundred times smaller than the width of a hair, which makes it extremely soft and flexible ⎯ nearly as soft as the neural tissue itself.
“This flexibility gives it the stability and biocompatibility we need to safely record spinal neurons during spinal cord movements,” said Chong Xie, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering and bioengineering and a corresponding author of the study. “With spinalNET, we were able to get low-noise signals from hundreds of neurons.”
The spinal cord plays a critical role in controlling movement and other vital functions, and the ability to record spinal neurons with fine-grained spatial and temporal resolution during unrestrained motion offers a window into the mechanisms that make this possible. Using spinalNET, researchers were able to determine that the spinal neurons in the central pattern generator — the neuronal circuit that can produce rhythmic motor patterns such as walking in the absence of specific timing information — seem to be involved with a lot more than rhythmic movement.
“Some of them are strongly correlated with leg movement, but surprisingly, a lot of neurons have no obvious correlation with movement,” Wu said. “This indicates that the spinal circuit controlling rhythmic movement is more complicated than we thought.”
The researchers said they hope to help unravel some of this complexity in future research, tackling questions such as the difference between how spinal neurons process reflex motion ⎯ getting startled, for instance ⎯ versus volitional action.
“In addition to scientific insight, we believe that as the technology evolves, it has great potential as a medical device for people with spinal cord neurological disorders and injury,” Luan said.
The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01NS102917, U01NS115588, U01NS131086, R01NS109361, R01NS123160, R01NS108034, U19NS112959), Rice, the Salk Institute and the Mary K. Chapman Foundation. The content in this press release is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the funders.
-30-
This news release can be found online at news.rice.edu.
Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews.
Peer-reviewed paper:
“Ultraflexible electrodes for recording neural activity in the mouse spinal cord during motor behavior” | Cell Reports | DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114199
Authors: Yu Wu, Benjamin Temple, Nicole Sevilla, Jiaao Zhang, Hanlin Zhu, Pavlo Zolotavin, Yifu Jin, Daniela Duarte, Elischa Sanders, Eiman Azim, Axel Nimmerjahn, Samuel Pfaff, Lan Luan and Chong Xie
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2024.114199
Image downloads:
https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/07/240520_Cell_Fitlow_0572-copy.jpeg
CAPTION: Yu Wu is a research scientist at Rice University and lead author on a study published in Cell Reports. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/07/240520_Cell_Fitlow_0550.jpg
CAPTION: Lan Luan (from left), Yu Wu and Chong Xie (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/07/240520_Cell_Fitlow_0536.jpg
CAPTION: A team of Rice University neuroengineers developed a sensor that can record the activity of spinal cord neurons in a freely moving animal model. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
https://news-network.rice.edu/news/files/2024/07/CellReports_spinalNET.jpg
CAPTION: Rice University research scientist Yu Wu is holding spinalNET, a sensor that is over a hundred times smaller than the width of a hair and nearly as soft as neural tissue. (Photo by Jeff Fitlow/Rice University)
About Rice:
Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation’s top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of architecture, business, continuing studies, engineering, humanities, music, natural sciences and social sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 4,574 undergraduates and 3,982 graduate students, Rice’s undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is just under 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for lots of race/class interaction, No. 2 for best-run colleges and No. 12 for quality of life by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger’s Personal Finance.
If you do not wish to receive news releases from Rice University, reply to this email and write “unsubscribe” in the subject line. Office of News and Media Relations – MS 300, Rice University, 6100 Main St., Houston, TX 77005.
END
Rice engineers’ probe could help advance treatment for spinal cord disease, injury
Nanosized sensor records spinal cord neurons in action
2024-07-11
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Muscle machine: How water controls the speed of muscle contraction
2024-07-11
Image
The flow of water within a muscle fiber may dictate how quickly muscle can contract, according to a University of Michigan study.
Nearly all animals use muscle to move, and it's been known for a long time that muscle, like all other cells, is composed of about 70% water. But researchers don't know what sets the range and upper limits of muscle performance. Previous research into how muscle works focused only on how it worked on a molecular level rather than how muscle fibers are shaped, that they are three-dimensional ...
Nearly one in 10 pregnant people who get COVID will develop long COVID
2024-07-11
Nearly one in 10 people who get COVID while pregnant will go on to develop long COVID, a report publishing July 11th in Obstetrics & Gynecology has found.
“It was surprising to me that the prevalence was that high,” says Torri Metz, MD, vice chair of research of obstetrics and gynecology at University of Utah Health, who co-led the nationwide study. “This is something that does continue to affect otherwise reasonably healthy and young populations.”
Intersecting risks
Prior research had shown that COVID affects pregnant people in uniquely ...
User control of autoplay can alter awareness of online video ‘rabbit holes’
2024-07-11
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The rabbit hole contains madness, according to author Lewis Carroll. Online, that madness manifests in the form of increasingly extreme content, often without users realizing it. A new study by Penn State researchers suggests that giving users control over the interface feature of autoplay can help them realize that they are going down a rabbit hole.
The work — which the researchers said has implications for responsibly designing online content viewing platforms and algorithms, as well as helping users better ...
UCF launches inaugural mentorship, scholarship initiative for students in AI
2024-07-11
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6j4zjqI21Gs
Faculty in UCF’s College of Sciences and College of Engineering and Computer Science are preparing incoming students to keep pace with the emerging multidisciplinary field of artificial intelligence.
A team of five faculty, led by UCF’s Center for Research in Computer Vision (CRCV), recently received a U.S. National Science Foundation grant totaling nearly $2.5 million over five years to serve as resources to uplift bright yet low-income or struggling ...
Ultrasound technology can be used to boost mindfulness, study finds
2024-07-11
One of the intriguing abilities of the human mind is daydreaming, where the mind wanders off into spontaneous thoughts, fantasies and scenarios, often without conscious effort, allowing creativity and reflection to flow freely.
In a new study published in Frontiers of Human Neuroscience, University of Arizona researchers used low-intensity ultrasound technology to noninvasively alter a brain region associated with activities such as daydreaming, recalling memories and envisioning the future. They found that the technique can ultimately enhance mindfulness, marking a major advancement in the field ...
Gravitational waves hint at dark matter and Big Bang mysteries
2024-07-11
RIVERSIDE, Calif. -- Gravitational Waves, ripples in space-time predicted by Einstein almost a century ago, were detected for the first time in 2015. A new study led by Yanou Cui, an associate professor of physics and astronomy at the University of California, Riverside, reports that very simple forms of matter could create detectable gravitational wave backgrounds soon after the Big Bang.
“This mechanism of creating detectable gravitational wave backgrounds may shed light on ...
Study identifies seductive language for narcissists in job postings and the implications
2024-07-11
Employers and recruiting firms frequently infuse job postings with words and phrases like “ambitious,” “thinks outside the box,” “communicates persuasively” and “thinks strategically.”
However, according to a forthcoming Management Science study, such keywords signify “rule-bender” (versus “rule-follower”) language and heavily draw narcissistic applicants who are more likely to engage in unethical or fraudulent behavior–significantly ...
Black Americans develop mental resilience to discrimination early
2024-07-11
DURHAM, N.C. -- No one likes to feel like they’re not getting the respect or courtesy they deserve. Think about the last time you felt talked down to, or treated as inferior, or got worse customer service than another person in line.
But by the time most Americans reach adulthood, Blacks may have developed better coping skills for these disappointments than their white counterparts, potentially limiting the toll such experiences take on their mental health.
That’s one of the key takeaways of a Duke University study looking at how young men and women in the U.S. react ...
Living near oil and gas activity linked to poor mental health during preconception
2024-07-11
EMBARGOED UNTIL 4 P.M. ET Thursday, July 11, 2024
Contact:
Jillian McKoy, jpmckoy@bu.edu
Michael Saunders, msaunder@bu.edu
##
As the oil and gas industry continues its rapid expansion throughout North America, a growing body of research has linked fossil fuel development to physical and mental health conditions during and after pregnancy, including preterm birth, birth defects, and psychological stress.
But it appears that oil and gas production may be hazardous to this population even before they become pregnant.
A new study led by Boston University School of Public Health (BUSPH) researchers suggests that ...
WISDOM project pioneers plan to secure cross-border data sharing to combat chronic immune mediated diseases affecting 10% of Europeans
2024-07-11
Integrating medical and research data, ensuring secure data sharing, and using advanced AI models offer immense possibilities to mitigate the impact of chronic immune-mediated diseases (CIMDs) affecting 10% of Europeans. The consortium aims to transform complex biological information into actionable insights.
WISDOM believes novel computational tools can provide valuable knowledge and guide decision-making throughout the patient journey, from diagnosis to treatment optimization.
“As a key partner in the WISDOM project, the European Multiple Sclerosis Platform (EMSP) is committed to ensuring that patients' voices and perspectives are central to ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Osteoporosis treatment benefits people older than 80
Consuming more protein may protect patients taking anti-obesity drug from muscle loss
Thyroid treatment may improve gut health in people with hypothyroidism
Combination of obesity medication tirzepatide and menopause hormone therapy fuels weight loss
High blood sugar may have a negative impact on men’s sexual health
Emotional health of parents tied to well-being of children with growth hormone deficiency
Oxytocin may reduce mood changes in women with disrupted sleep
Mouse study finds tirzepatide slowed obesity-associated breast cancer growth
CMD-OPT model enables the discovery of a potent and selective RIPK2 inhibitor as preclinical candidate for the treatment of acute liver injury
Melatonin receptor 1a alleviates sleep fragmentation-aggravated testicular injury in T2DM by suppression of TAB1/TAK1 complex through FGFR1
Single-cell RNA sequencing reveals Shen-Bai-Jie-Du decoction retards colorectal tumorigenesis by regulating the TMEM131–TNF signaling pathway-mediated differentiation of immunosuppressive dendritic ce
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B Volume 15, Issue 7 Publishes
New research expands laser technology
Targeted radiation offers promise in patients with metastasized small cell lung cancer to the brain
A high clinically translatable strategy to anti-aging using hyaluronic acid and silk fibroin co-crosslinked hydrogels as dermal regenerative fillers
Mount Sinai researchers uncover differences in how males and females change their mind when reflecting on past mistakes
CTE and normal aging are difficult to distinguish, new study finds
Molecular arms race: How the genome defends itself against internal enemies
Tiny chip speeds up antibody mapping for faster vaccine design
KTU experts reveal why cultural heritage is important for community unity
More misfolded proteins than previously known may contribute to Alzheimer’s and dementia
“Too much going on”: Autistic adults overwhelmed by non-verbal social cues
What’s driving America’s deep freezes in a warming world?
A key role of brain protein in learning and memory is deciphered by scientists
Heart attacks don’t follow a Hollywood script
Erin M. Schuman wins 2026 Nakasone Award for discovery on neural synapse function and change during formation of memories
Global ocean analysis could replace costly in-situ sound speed profiles in seafloor positioning, study finds
Power in numbers: Small group professional coaching reduces rates of physician burnout by nearly 30%
Carbon capture, utilization, and storage: A comprehensive review of CCUS-EOR
New high-temperature stable dispersed particle gel for enhanced profile control in CCUS applications
[Press-News.org] Rice engineers’ probe could help advance treatment for spinal cord disease, injuryNanosized sensor records spinal cord neurons in action