Talk:Neural strain

-- JenB (talk) 00:32, August 31, 2019 (EDT)

Neurobiology of stretch injury Stretching a neuron causes clumping and loss of microtubules and neurofilaments inside the axons, which results in the the axons being sheared off the cell body to form axon retraction balls. In experiments, stretching a mouse optic nerve by just 20% of its length results in the appearance of axon retraction balls a few days later; a week later apoptosis of the neuron occurs. Stretching a nerve causes an opening of the sodium channels, which floods the cell with sodium. The sodium then depolarizes the voltage-gated calcium channels, leading to an influx of calcium, which is very harmful to the nerve cell. Stretching a neuron also causes an upregulation of NMDA receptors, which make the neuron more vulnerable to free radical species.

Define neural strain

I think you should define neutral strain at the beginning of the article. The term neural strain doesn't show up if I search it on PubMed or google scholar. Are you sure that all the references you list refer to the same phenomenon? Some seem about stretching the nerves while others are about serious neural trauma. JenB —Sisyphus

I believe that User:JenB is using the engineering definition of the word “strain”, which means “a change in shape due to external compression or extension”. (See https://www.nde-ed.org/EducationResources/CommunityCollege/Materials/Mechanical/StressStrain.htm ). Since this may not be obvious to a medical audience, this should be made clear. Personally, I would prefer the term “Nerve strain” to make it clear that we are talking about macroscopic forces, although explaining the sequelae of these macroscopic forces necessarily will resort to microscopic phenomena. I also think that the term “Nerve strain” would be more accepted by the medical community than the term “Neural strain”. (And yes, the brainstem can be referred to as a collection of nerves, so this term could apply to the brainstem, too.). My 2 cents!

Pyrrhus (talk) 15:05, September 14, 2019 (EDT)

If it's a term that isn't used in the medical literature and there isn't some review or a textbook overview on this subject, then this page might be more appropriately housed in the Medical Hypothesis section. --Sisyphus (talk) 15:49, September 14, 2019 (EDT)