Cellular Bases of Movement - From Cell Types to Circuits in Health And Disease

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About this Research Topic

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Background

While sensory inputs connect animals with the surrounding environment, movement provides organisms with the ability to interact with it. Movement is de facto essential for every behavior.
The planning, initiation, and control of movements involve different neuronal cell types and circuits across the central nervous system (CNS). Motor outputs are further modulated by the integration of emotional, cognitive, and sensory information. Since cell types and circuits modulating movements govern our interactions with the outside world, their disruption in CNS disease and injury can lead to major disabilities.
Thus, there is a need to understand how neuronal cell types and circuits, allowing individuals to interact with the environment, are articulated in the CNS in physiology and how their organization is disrupted in pathological states.

In the last decade, the identification of the diversity of neuronal populations and circuits in vertebrates such as mice and zebrafish was facilitated by advances in research techniques such as single-cell transcriptomics, connectomics, and neuronal circuit tracing. Combined with neuronal activity manipulation, electrophysiology, calcium or voltage-imaging, and motion capture, these methods built the foundation necessary for investigating the function of specific cell types and neural circuits involved in movement mediation such as the functional description of various reticulospinal projections.

These discoveries, alongside the use of animal models recapitulating CNS injury and diseases such as Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD), have allowed for the identification of cell types and circuits underlying the development of motor impairments, potentially paving the way for translational opportunities.

The goal of this Research Topic is to achieve a better understanding of movement generation mechanisms operated by the CNS in vertebrates. In particular, we aim to gather the latest research addressing the key aspects of cell types and circuits responsible for movement generation and control, and how these are impacted by CNS diseases and injury.

We welcome all types of articles providing new insights into cell types and circuits involved in and modulating movement generation, with particular interest but not limited to the following:


· Development of motor circuits in vertebrates

· Identification of neuronal populations modulating movements

· Modulation of motor networks by sensory circuits

· Connectivity between and within motor circuits

· Motor circuit reorganization following CNS injury

· Identification of neuronal populations affected in models of CNS diseases

· Motor circuit disruptions in models of CNS diseases

Keywords: motor control, spinal cord, cerebellum, brainstem, movement, movement disorders, motor cortex, locomotion, ALS, Parkinson’s disease, dystonia, ataxia, central pattern generators, spinal cord injury, motoneuron, progenitor, motor circuits

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