Publications by Lucia Florinda Friedli Wittler

Cortico–reticulo–spinal circuit reorganization enables functional recovery after severe spinal cord contusion

Grégoire Courtine, Bernard Schneider, Quentin Barraud, Léonie Asboth, Mark Andrew Anderson, Lucia Florinda Friedli Wittler, Laetitia Danielle Philippine Baud, Polina Shkorbatova, Janine Beauparlant, Galyna Pidpruzhnykova

Severe spinal cord contusions interrupt nearly all brain projections to lumbar circuits producing leg movement. Failure of these projections to reorganize leads to permanent paralysis. Here we modeled these injuries in rodents. A severe contusion abolished ...

2018

Engagement of the Rat Hindlimb Motor Cortex across Natural Locomotor Behaviors

Silvestro Micera, Grégoire Courtine, Rubia van den Brand, Jacopo Rigosa, Julie Kreider, Lucia Florinda Friedli Wittler, Janine Beauparlant, Simone Ellen Joze Duis

Contrary to cats and primates, cortical contribution to hindlimb locomotor movements is not critical in rats. However, the importance of the motor cortex to regain locomotion after neurological disorders in rats suggests that cortical engagement in hindlim ...

Soc Neuroscience2016

Decoding bipedal locomotion from the rat sensorimotor cortex

Silvestro Micera, Grégoire Courtine, Rubia van den Brand, Jacopo Rigosa, Lucia Florinda Friedli Wittler

Objective. Decoding forelimb movements from the firing activity of cortical neurons has been interfaced with robotic and prosthetic systems to replace lost upper limb functions in humans. Despite the potential of this approach to improve locomotion and fac ...

Institute of Physics2015

Neuroprosthetic rehabilitation and translational mechanism after severe spinal cord injury

Lucia Florinda Friedli Wittler

Traumatic SCIs have long-term health, economic and social consequences, stressing the urgency to develop interventions to improve recovery after such injuries. Today, the only proven effective interventions to enhance recovery after SCI are activity-based ...

EPFL2014

Undirected compensatory plasticity contributes to neuronal dysfunction after severe spinal cord injury

Grégoire Courtine, Quentin Barraud, Pavel Musienko, Rubia van den Brand, Lucia Florinda Friedli Wittler, Janine Beauparlant

Severe spinal cord injury in humans leads to a progressive neuronal dysfunction in the chronic stage of the injury. This dysfunction is characterized by premature exhaustion of muscle activity during assisted locomotion, which is associated with the emerge ...

Oxford University Press2013

Versatile robotic interface to evaluate, enable and train locomotion and balance after neuromotor disorders

Grégoire Courtine, Pavel Musienko, Rubia van den Brand, Lucia Florinda Friedli Wittler

Central nervous system (CNS) disorders distinctly impair locomotor pattern generation and balance, but technical limitations prevent independent assessment and rehabilitation of these subfunctions. Here we introduce a versatile robotic interface to evaluat ...

Nature Publishing Group2012

Restoring Voluntary Control of Locomotion after Paralyzing Spinal Cord Injury

Silvestro Micera, Grégoire Courtine, Eduardo Martin Moraud, Quentin Barraud, Pavel Musienko, Rubia van den Brand, Lucia Florinda Friedli Wittler, Simone Ellen Joze Duis, Isabel Laura Vollenweider, Kay Alexander Bartholdi

Half of human spinal cord injuries lead to chronic paralysis. Here, we introduce an electrochemical neuroprosthesis and a robotic postural interface designed to encourage supraspinally-mediated movements in rats with paralyzing lesions. Despite the interru ...

American Association for the Advancement of Science2012