Timecourse for receptive field plasticity following spinal cord hemisection.

Previously, we demonstrated that between 5 days and 3 months following a partial spinal cord hemisection, proximal hindlimb receptive fields of neurons in the ipsilateral L7 dorsal horn of cats become enlarged. In this study, we used somatotopic mapping procedures, applied bilaterally, to demonstrate that this change in receptive field size occurs between 10 and 14 days postoperatively.