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¹ Institute of Clinical Neurosciences, The University of Sydney and Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, NSW, Australia

This study investigated whether there are changes in the excitability of motor axons in peripheral nerves of patients with corticospinal lesions, reflecting plasticity of the motoneuron due to altered descending drives and/or changes in afferent feedback. The excitability of motor and sensory axons in peripheral nerves of the affected limb of 11 patients with unilateral hemiparesis due to stroke was compared with that for the unaffected limbs and with data for 12 age-matched controls. There was significantly less accommodation to hyperpolarizing currents in motor axons on the affected side. There were small differences between the data for the unaffected side and that of the control subjects but these were not statistically significant. Other findings indicate that there was no change in resting membrane potential. There was no comparable alteration in the excitability of sensory axons. The changes in response of motor axons to hyperpolarizing currents could be reproduced in a computer model of the human motor axon by reducing the hyperpolarization-activated conductance, I_H, by 30% and the quantitatively small leak conductance by 77%. The data for the uninvolved side matched the data for control subjects best when I_H was increased. These findings are consistent with modulation of I_H by activity. They demonstrate a change in the biophysical properties of motor axons not directly affected by the pathology and synaptically remote from the lesion, and have implications for ‘trans-synaptic’ changes in central nervous system pathways. In human subjects studies of motor axon properties may allow insight into processes affecting the motoneuron.

(Received 27 October 2006; accepted after revision 13 March 2007; first published online 15 March 2007)
Corresponding author S. Jankelowitz: Medical Foundation Building – K25, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia. Email: s.jankelowitz{at}chs.usyd.edu.au

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