The Humane Research Trust is funding a research project at UCL to enhance our understanding of interactions between the spinal cord and the brain. The team will study patients, making use of wearable brain and spinal sensors and muscle activity monitors. The data will help uncover how these systems communicate, and the changes that occur following spinal cord injury or stroke. This will lead to new insights into recovery and help develop better treatments for neurological conditions.
Every movement we make, from walking to waving, relies on a complex conversation between the brain, our spinal cord, and muscles. But when this communication breaks down, due to conditions like stroke or spinal cord injury, people can lose the ability to move freely or control their muscles.
To improve life for patients with neurological conditions, we need to understand how spinal cord and brain circuits communicate, and how this is impaired when either entity is damaged. However, this part of the central nervous system is really challenging to study in humans. As a result of this, scientists have historically used animal studies to try to gain knowledge about its neurophysiology.
Between 2014 and 2023 alone, 2.58 million live animals were used and killed in British neurological research projects. This work involved gruesome experiments on a range of animals, including mice, dogs, sheep, pigs, and non-human primates. However, there are profound differences between species that severely limit the effectiveness of this approach.
“An animal model that completely simulates injury and reorganisation in humans does not exist,” explains Prof Sven Bestmann, Professor in Clinical and Movement Neurosciences at University College London (UCL). “This creates a need for better approaches to study spinal cord function in humans.”
Researchers are increasingly turning to imaging technologies to help them non-invasively study the nervous systems of patients. While tools like MRI can visualise the anatomy and functions of the spinal cord, this method doesn’t directly measure neurophysiology activity – that is, the electrical and chemical processes. It also isn’t precise enough to accurately capture changes over time.
Fortunately, scientists at UCL have developed a new, innovative imaging method. The scientists are using novel sensors called optically-pumped magnetometers (OPMs), which measure the weak magnetic fields generated by neural signals from the brain and spinal cord simultaneously. The Humane Research Trust is delighted to be funding a project which will harness this technology, enabling the scientists to delve into brain and spinal cord interactions.
The team will work with a cohort of patients who have experienced spinal cord injury or stroke, as well as healthy volunteers. The two groups will participate in a series of experiments involving muscle movement, while the researchers track their brain and spinal cord activity using the OPMs. They will gather additional data using a technique called high-density electromyography, where electrodes measure electrical activity from muscles. Experiments will be repeated with patients at various stages of their recovery, helping the scientists pinpoint common markers of recovery.
This research could transform how we understand and treat neurological conditions, without relying on cruel and outdated animal experiments. By identifying the specific ways communication breaks down between the human brain, spinal cord, and muscles, scientists can develop more targeted therapies to help people regain movement and independence following neurological injury.
“Concurrently studying the neurophysiology of brain and spinal cord with high precision has generally been reserved for animal models,” says Prof Bestmann, the project’s principal investigator. “Our ambition is to overcome this, by providing a novel demonstration of key physiological signatures of movement control, impairment, and recovery after damage to the central nervous system in humans.”
Prof Svenn Bestmann
Principal investigator
Prof Bestmann is a a Professor in Clinical and Movement Neurosciences at University College London. His laboratory is focused on understanding the neural processes underlying the planning and execution of both healthy and pathological movement. He uses cutting-edge imaging technologies and approaches to help study diseases such as stroke.
Beatriz Silveira de Arruda
Postdoctoral researcher
Beatriz recently completed her PhD in Clinical Neurosciences at the University of Oxford. Her thesis involved developing a non-invasive method for treating tremor in Parkinson's disease through electrical stimulation. She's also previously worked with patients with spinal cord injury using electroencephalography.
