In 2003, my older brother and I were in a car accident while on our way to New Jersey for the Easter holiday. The car spun into the guardrail on the highway, and the airbag deployed, leaving him unconscious. The force of the airbag destabilized his spine, and he underwent three surgeries immediately after the accident in hopes of rectifying the damage. My brother sustained a spinal cord injury at the cervical vertebrae C4 and C5 (C4/C5), which resulted in quadriplegia.

The C4 and C5 vertebrae are located at the base of the neck, and motor function and sensation are affected at and below the level of injury. As a result, my brother’s ability to control muscle movement and perceive sensation is compromised from the neck down. This pattern of paralysis is called quadriplegia. Another common pattern of paralysis is paraplegia, where muscle control is compromised from the waist down.

The severity of paralysis also depends on how “complete” the injury is. To visualize this, think of string cheese. A complete spinal cord injury is like breaking a piece of string cheese in half—the connection is fully severed, so nothing can pass from one side to the other. In contrast, an incomplete spinal cord injury is like pulling apart the strands of string cheese—some connections remain intact, allowing partial communication, just as some nerve signals can still travel through the remaining fibers.

Back in 2003, I was only 7 years old and didn’t yet understand any of this. I was frustrated and confused, expecting the doctors to be able to “fix it.” This event changed my entire life. I suddenly became a caregiver for my teenage brother, and over time, I developed enough interest in his condition to pursue basic science research as an extracurricular activity during my junior year of high school.

The lab I joined at City College focused on motor function after brain or spinal cord injuries and the role of activity-dependent plasticity in functional recovery. To be plastic is to have the capacity to be molded or changed in form or shape. When we think of neuroplasticity, it refers to the nervous system’s ability to adapt its structure and function in response to stimuli. In the case of spinal cord injury, the traumatic event from the car accident served as a stimulus. The nervous system’s ability to adapt post-trauma guides the level of function an individual can regain. The goal of our work in the lab was to promote plasticity of the remaining nerve fibers after injury through stimuli that we introduced as researchers.

This was a lot to process at 16, but with each visit to the lab, my mentor broke down these concepts and made them more accessible—just as I aim to do for this audience. Now that I’m over 10 years into this field, it’s a privilege pay it forward and tell you all my “why.”