Peripheral nerve injuries (PNIs) by traumatic or nontraumatic causes lead to significant sensorimotor function loss and pain. Although there have been surgical technical improvements (e.g., nerve transfer) over the last few decades, we have not seen significant progress in the management or rehabilitation strategies in patients with PNIs. Clinicians continue to face the challenges of significant sensorimotor deficits, disabling neuropathic pain, allodynia, hyperalgesia, referred pain, and other somatosensory abnormalities.

In brief, the term “plasticity” refers to the ability to change. In the field of neuroscience, studies of plasticity examine changes in the structure or function of the nervous system from the molecular/cellular (e.g., channels, receptors, synapses, neurons) to systemic level (e.g., networks, connections), including both the peripheral (peripheral neuroplasticity) and central nervous system (central neuroplasticity). The extensive “plastic changes” at multiple levels, including cortex, subcortex, spinal cord, nerve trucks, and muscles, occur during the repair and recovery process of PNIs and contribute to the restoration outcomes of sensorimotor function. Better understanding of the contribution of plasticity to the symptoms in recovering PNI patients could help guide rehabilitation strategies and inform the development of novel techniques to counteract these maladaptive changes and ultimately improve outcomes.

This Special Issue aims to provide an inter- and multi-disciplinary overview of the research in the field of neuroplasticity that can occur in peripheral and central nervous systems after injury to a peripheral nerve. Following peripheral nerve injury and repair, we firstly focus on topics of peripheral nerve regeneration and target muscle reinnervation. We are interested in how axons grow through the injured site and new motor endplates form. Influencing factors (e.g., neurotrophic factors) and interventions to promote axon regeneration and prevent muscle atrophy can be included. We are even more interested in topics on plastic changes in the central nervous system following PNI. Subjects may cover structures including cortex (e.g., sensorimotor representation changes, increase/decrease of cortical excitability, changes in synaptic efficiency), subcortex (e.g., reorganization of afferent/efferent projections, remolding of neural circuits, changes in ion channels) and spinal cord (e.g., dendrite and neuron remolding, plasticity of synapsis, changes in inhibitory neurons). We encourage in vitro and in vivo studies, animal studies, and clinical investigations. We welcome original research articles, reviews, protocols and case reports. The aim of this special issue is to explore the mechanism of plasticity after PNIs and develop potentially effective strategies for functional recovery in both animal models and humans.

Potential topics include but are not limited to the following:

• Brachial plexus Injury
• Traumatic peripheral nerve Injury
• Peripheral nerve entrapment
• Peripheral neuritis
• Glia cells (astrocytes, microglia, oligodendrocytes, Schwann cells)
• Diabetic peripheral neuropathy
• Brain plasticity after peripheral nerve injury
• Remolding of neural circuits
• Spinal cord plasticity after peripheral nerve Injury
• Nerve degeneration and regeneration
• Muscle atrophy
• Novel surgical treatments for peripheral nerve injury
• Novel rehabilitation treatments for peripheral nerve injury