The heterogeneity of traumatic spinal cord injury necessitates large clinical trials to differentiate natural improvements from enhanced recovery due to therapeutic intervention. Recent development of an imaging biomarker to visualize changes in the corticospinal motor system could offer the opportunity to directly visualize anatomical evidence of repair, regeneration and plasticity.
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Cadotte, D., Fehlings, M. Visualizing plasticity and repair in the injured CNS. Nat Rev Neurol 9, 546–547 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2013.190
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrneurol.2013.190