29/10/2026
🧠 The injury healed. Did the nervous system?
When we think about neuroplasticity in rehabilitation, our minds often go straight to neurological patients.
But an orthopaedic injury changes the nervous system too.
Pain, inflammation, altered sensory input, reduced movement and changes in loading all influence the information travelling between the injured area, spinal cord and brain.
And the nervous system responds to that information.
Muscle activation can become inhibited.
Movement strategies change.
Sensory and motor representations within the brain can reorganise.
And over weeks or months, the patient becomes very practised at moving within this altered system.
So what happens when the original tissues heal? Does the nervous system automatically return to its pre-injury state?
Not necessarily.
This is why rehabilitation can't only be about healing tissue, restoring range of motion or rebuilding muscle.
We also need to think about sensory input, motor activation, learning, repetition and the movement experiences we're giving the patient as they recover.
👉 Comment BLOG to read *The Injury Healed. Did the Nervous System?*
This blog revisits some of the concepts shared by Amie Hesbach and Gillian Tabor in their Equine Neurodynamics webinar series – and we're very excited to welcome both Amie and Gillian back as lecturers at the 2026 Vet Rehab Summit: THE BRAIN. 🧠