Daily Archives: August 29, 2015

Humans and monkeys exhibit greater motor recovery than rats after similar spinal cord injury, new research shows.Spontaneous improvement occurs during the first six months after a spinal cord injury, allowing a hemiplegic patient to recover partial motor control. The neuronal mechanisms underlying this extensive recovery in primates are nearly absent in laboratory rats, researchers said. "Research on rats is essential for developing regenerative therapies, but rodents show fundamental differences from primates in terms of neuronal reorganisation and functional recovery," say researchers.