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UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology

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Neurophysiology and neuroanatomy of small-diameter corticospinal axons

Small fibres are ubiquitous in the mammalian corticospinal tract. Our understanding of the functions of these small fibres, which far outnumber large ones, is still rudimentary. These fibres may be very important in clinical conditions such as spinal cord injury because not only are they much more numerous than large axons, but they are much less susceptible to trauma. Together with our UCL collaborator, Mitch Glickstein, here we are looking at the spectrum of axon diameters in the corticospinal and corticopontine systems and their cortical areas of origin. We are combining this with a study of the physiological response properties of small-diameter corticospinal fibres to intracortical and non-invasive stimuli.