The goal of the NEUROTRAIN project funded by the Carlos III Health Institute is to stimulate neuroplasticity in patients with bone-marrow injuries. The concept of neuroplasticity refers to the way in which our nervous system changes from interacting with the environment.

According to Julio Gomez-Soriano "to achieve this goal throughout the project, which will last from 2018 to 2021, we are going to combine non-invasive electrical stimulation of the spinal cord and the intense pedalling motion of a special bicycle which is static and has been technically adapted to this research".

The study is based on stimulation of the so-called " central patterns generator", a network of neurons located in the spinal cord in the lumbar regions and which has the intrinsic capacity to generate cyclical and alternating patterns of motion in the lower limbs, similar to those that occur in mobile ones. In this way, activation of the central patterns generator is one of the keys at present to rehabilitating mobility in recent years.

As NEUROTRAIN explained to the researcher · "the aim of the project is to activate these neuronal networks with non-invasive electrodes placed on the skin on the back and not by surgical procedures as has been done up to now. Moreover, as supported by the latest breakthroughs in neuroscience, the study sets the hypothesis that the combination of cyclical motion such as pedalling, may lead to specific changes to the central nervous system which contributes to motor recovery and improvement in the function of the patients.

According to the researcher from the National Hospital for Paraplegics Julian Taylor, "this rehabilitation strategy may, also, control muscular spasms which are very typical in this type of patient which also directly interfere with improving mobility after bone-marrow injury".

The NEUROTRAIN project, the only one in Castilla-La Mancha which in this call has been funded by the Carlos III Health Institute, also seeks, above all, to set and validate new neurophysiological tools which enable specific changes to the nervous system to be quantified and predicted, in order to be able to determine the profile of patients which would best respond to these new neurorehabilitation therapies.

In the project, both UCLM professors and researchers have collaborated as well as doctors and physiotheraphists from the HNP thanks to the close links there are between both institutions.

UCLM Communication Office Toledo, 7th of February 2018.