NEURAL CONTROL OF LOCOMOTION - PART 1 - THE CENTRAL PATTERN GENERATORFROM CATS TO HUMANS

In the last years it has become possible to regain some locomotor acti vity in patients suffering from an incomplete spinal cord injury (SCI) through intense training on a treadmill. The ideas behind this approa ch owe much to insights derived from animal studies. Many studies show ed that cats with complete spinal cord transection can recover locomot or function. These observations were at the basis of the concept of th e central pattern generator (CPG) located at spinal level. The evidenc e for such a spinal CPG in cats and primates (including man) is review ed in part 1, with special emphasis on some very recent developments w hich support the view that there is a human spinal CPG for locomotion. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.