Corinna Darian-Smith

Professional Education

Graduate & Fellowship Program Affiliations

• Comparative Medicine
• Neurosciences

Research Interests

My research focuses on two main areas:
1) the structural organization and function of central neural pathways (e.g. of the spinal cord, brainstem, thalamus and cortex) that underlie directed manual behavior, and
2) the capacity of these central neural pathways (circuits) to compensate/adapt following localized injury. Our laboratory uses neuroanatomical, electrophysiological and behavioural approaches to look at the sensorimotor systems of nonhuman primates, and to examine the neural basis for functional 'recovery’ observed following the selective disruption of pathways mediating fine finger control.
We are also interested in the presence and role of adult neurogenesis in the CNS following injury.

Publications

• Changes in synaptic populations in the spinal dorsal horn following a dorsal rhizotomy in the monkey. Darian-Smith C, Hopkins S, Ralston HJ. J Comp Neurol. 2010; 518 (1): 103-17
• Synaptic plasticity, neurogenesis, and functional recovery after spinal cord injury. Darian-Smith C, Neuroscientist. 2009; 15 (2): 149-65
• Monkey models of recovery of voluntary hand movement after spinal cord and dorsal root injury. Darian-Smith C, ILAR J. 2007; 48 (4): 396-410
• Adult neurogenesis in primate and rodent spinal cord: comparing a cervical dorsal rhizotomy with a dorsal column transection. Vessal M, Aycock A, Garton MT, Ciferri M, Darian-Smith C. Eur J Neurosci. 2007; 26 (10): 2777-94
• Synaptic protein dynamics in hibernation. von der Ohe CG, Garner CC, Darian-Smith C, Heller HC. J Neurosci. 2007; 27 (1): 84-92