Neural plasticity after spinal cord injury**

It also applies to stroke.
Full article here:
http://www.crter.org/NRR-E/2012/5k/386-391.pdf
INTRODUCTION
Over the past 30 years, the concepts of the central nervous system (CNS) have changed. The CNS is an organ with plasticity and has the ability to regulate and adapt after environmental transition or injury. Specifically, the uninjured neurons and axon lateral branches can grow in denervated regions to reconstruct neural circuits to compensate for impaired sensory and motor function[1]. Because the axonal lateral branch connection forms distal to the injury site, it avoids limitations to axonal growth and elongation due to an inhibitive environment in the injury site. However, the ability of axonal regeneration and elongation is limited in adult humans and other animals. Thus, improving neural plasticity is critical for repair of CNS injury. Increasing numbers of studies have confirmed that functional exercise targeting the denervated region, neurotrophic factor and transplantation of tissues and cells can effectively improve neural plasticity.
Retrieval strategy regarding articles included in this review is shown as follows.
Inclusion criteria: studies discussing advances in neural plasticity after spinal cord injury (SCI).
Exclusion criteria: outdated and repetitive studies were excluded.
Article inclusion: 231 articles were first collected, which were all published in English. The titles and abstracts were read, and 146 were excluded, including 35 repetitive studies. The remaining 52 English articles comprising 41 basic studies and animal experiments, and nine review articles were used for further analysis. These articles analyzed conditions for modulation of neural plasticity and reconstruction of the neural circuit and summarized methods for improving neural plasticity changes.
CONDITIONS FOR MODULATION OF NEURAL PLASTICITY AND RECONSTRUCTION OF NEURAL CIRCUITS
Due to the limitation of axonal regeneration in the adult injured CNS, spontaneous sensory and motor functional recovery after SCI has been regarded as reconstruction of neural circuits by axonal or dendritic elongation connections[2]. The reconstruction of neural circuits is generated in the spinal cord, brain stem, thalamus, and sensorimotor cortex[3], and is mainly comprised of synaptic reorganization, axonal sprouting, and neurogenesis.
Cool picture on the 3rd page.