Journal
NEURON
Volume 60, Issue 1, Pages 70-83Publisher
CELL PRESS
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2008.08.009
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation
- MGCB, University of Chicago
- Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship
- NIH [R01 NS40795-05, R01 NS045106]
- Wings for Life
- U.S. Friends of Karolinska
- Soderbergs Foundation
- Swedish Medical Research Council
- Brain Research Foundation
- Paralyzed Veterans of America
- European Union
- Wellcome Trust
- The Harold and Leila Mathers Foundation
- ALS
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The initiation and coordination of activity in limb muscles are the main functions of neural circuits that control locomotion. Commissural neurons connect locomotor circuits on the two sides of the spinal cord, and represent the known neural substrate for left-right coordination. Here we demonstrate that a group of ipsilateral interneurons, V2a interneurons, plays an essential role in the control of left-right alternation. In the absence of V2a interneurons, the spinal cord fails to exhibit consistent left-right alternation. Locomotor burst activity shows increased variability, but flexor-extensor coordination is unaffected. Anatomical tracing studies reveal a direct excitatory input of V2a. interneurons onto commissural interneurons, including a set of molecularly defined V0 neurons that drive left-right alternation. Our findings imply that the neural substrate for left-right coordination consists of at least two components; commissural neurons and a class of ipsilateral interneurons that activate commissural pathways.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available