Impairments in prehension produced by early postnatal sensory motor cortex activity blockade. J. Neurophysiol. 83: 895-906, 2000. This study examined the effects of blocking neural activity in sensory motor cortex dur...
详细信息
Impairments in prehension produced by early postnatal sensory motor cortex activity blockade. J. Neurophysiol. 83: 895-906, 2000. This study examined the effects of blocking neural activity in sensory motor cortex during early postnatal development on prehension. We infused muscimol, either unilaterally or bilaterally, into the sensory motor cortex of cats to block activity continuously between postnatal weeks 3-7. After stopping infusion, we trained animals to reach and grasp a cube of meat and tested behavior thereafter. Animals that had not received muscimol infusion (unilateral saline infusion;age-matched) reached for the meat accurately with small end-point errors. They grasped the meat using coordinated digit flexion followed by forearm supination on 82.7% of trials. Performance using either limb did not differ significantly. In animals receiving unilateral muscimol infusion, reaching and grasping using the limb ipsilateral to the infusion were similar to controls. The limb contralateral to infusion showed significant increases in systematic and variable reaching end-point errors, often requiring subsequent corrective movements to contact the meat. Grasping occurred on only 14.8% of trials, replaced on most trials by raking without distal movements. Compensatory adjustments in reach length and angle, to maintain end-point accuracy as movements were started from a more lateral position, were less effective using the contralateral limb than ipsilateral limb. With bilateral inactivations, the form of reaching acid grasping impairments was identical to that produced by unilateral inactivation, but the magnitude of the reaching impairments was less. We discuss these results in terms of the differential effects of unilateral and bilateral inactivation on corticospinal tract development. We also investigated the degree to which these prehension impairments after unilateral blockade reflect control by each hemisphere. In animals that had received unilateral blockade b
A quantitative evaluation of specific and nonspecific multiple unit activity (MUA) before and during pentylenetetrazol-induced EEG tonic-clonic discharges (OTCD) was made at four levels of the CNS: cortical, thalamic,...
详细信息
A quantitative evaluation of specific and nonspecific multiple unit activity (MUA) before and during pentylenetetrazol-induced EEG tonic-clonic discharges (OTCD) was made at four levels of the CNS: cortical, thalamic, mesencephalic, and pontine. In addition, MUA of sciatic nerve was recorded to detect possible spinal cord efferent discharges. At all levels, sustained increase in specific and nonspecific multiple unit activity preceded EEG and sciatic nerve discharges induced by pentylenetetrazol. Increments in nonspecific MUA occurred sooner and were larger than those of specific MUA, and increments in mesencephalic nonspecific MUA occurred sooner and were larger than those of other cortical, thalamic, and pontine nonspecific MUAs. This sequence of neuronal activation suggests that pentylenetetrazol seizures are initiated in nonspecific structures at the mesencephalic level.
Practicing movements results in improvement in performance and in plasticity of the motor cortex. To identify the underlying mechanisms, we studied use-dependent plasticity in human subjects premedicated with drugs th...
详细信息
Practicing movements results in improvement in performance and in plasticity of the motor cortex. To identify the underlying mechanisms, we studied use-dependent plasticity in human subjects premedicated with drugs that influence synaptic plasticity. Use-dependent plasticity was reduced substantially by dextromethorphan (an N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor blocker) and by lorazepam [a gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A receptor-positive allosteric modulator]. These results identify N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor activation and GABAergic inhibition as mechanisms operating in use-dependent plasticity in intact human motor cortex and point to similarities in the mechanisms underlying this form of plasticity and long-term potentiation.
Background. Catatonia, a symptom complex with motor, affective and cognitive symptoms seen in a variety of psychotic conditions and with organic disease, was examined using a motor task using functional magnetic reson...
详细信息
Background. Catatonia, a symptom complex with motor, affective and cognitive symptoms seen in a variety of psychotic conditions and with organic disease, was examined using a motor task using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Methods. Two acute catatonic patients and two age- and sex-matched healthy controls performed sequential finger opposition (SFO) after being medicated with 2 mg of lorazepam (i.v.). Functional magnetic resonance images were collected using a gradient echo pulse sequence (EPI). Results. Patients with catatonia showed reduced motor activation of the contralateral motor cortex during SFO of the right hand, ipsilateral activation was similar for patients and controls. There were no differences in the activation of the SMA. During left hand activation the right-handed catatonic patients showed more activation in the ipsilateral cortex, a reversal from the normal pattern of activation in which the contralateral side shows four to five times more activation than the ipsilateral side. Conclusions. In catatonic patients there is a decreased activation in motor cortex during a motor task compared to matched medicated healthy controls. In addition activation of the non-dominant side, left-handed activity in right-handed patients, results in a total reversal of the normal pattern of lateral activation suggesting a disturbance in hemispheric localization of activity during a catatonic state.
暂无评论