In some conditions, such as injury or disease plasticity can be maladaptive, leading to motor impairments. This can present as involuntary movement or the inability to move.
My fundamental work studying plasticity in spinal circuits in healthy states will inform investigations directed toward understanding mechanisms of disease.
Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis
Spinal Cord Injury
Outputs
Sharples, S.A., and Whelan, P.J. (2018). Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: Marking the differences in motoneurons. eLife. 2018; 7: e36832. DOI: 10.7554/eLife.36832.
Jean-Xavier, C.*, Sharples, S.A.*, Mayr, K.A., Lognon, A.P., and Whelan, P.J. (2018). Retracing your footsteps: developmental insights into spinal network plasticity following injury. Journal of Neurophysiology. 119 (2): 521-536. DOI: 10.1152/jn.00575.2017.
Mandadi, S., Leduc-Pessah, H., Hong, P., Ejdrygiewicz, J., Sharples, S.A., Trang, T., and Whelan, P.J. (2016). Modulatory and proliferative effects of kinins on the developing spinal cord. Journal of Physiology. 594 (4): 1017-1036. DOI: 10.1113/JP271152.
Funding
Simon A. Sharples, PhD 