Development, Plasticity, and Regeneration in the Mammalian Brain

Harvard FAS

Why do neuronal axon extensions within nerves of limbs regenerate after traumatic or combat injuries, but analogous axon tracts in the spinal cord and brain do not, e.g. in spinal cord injury? Why do diseases often have mutations in every cell of the body, and in every neuron type of the brain, but only 1 or 2 neuron types out of thousands degenerate or fail, e.g. in ALS or Parkinson’s disease? Why and how does often remarkable recovery from brain surgery or injury occur in young…