Complete and Partial Lesions of the Pyramidal Tract in theRat Affect Qualitative Measures of Skilled Movements:Impairment in Fixations as a Model for Clumsy Behavior

[摘要] Little is known about prenatal and perinatalbrain injury resulting in subsequent clumsybehavior in children. One candidate motor systemis the pyramidal tract. The tract traverses theentire central nervous system and, through directand indirect connections to the brainstem andspinal cord sensory and motor nuclei, is involvedin the learning and execution of skilled movements.Here, rats, either naive or pretrained on anumber of motor tasks, were assessed for acuteand chronic impairments following complete orincomplete pyramidal tract lesions. Postsurgeryrats with complete lesions were impaired on thequalitative measures of limb aiming, supination,and posture. Impaired movements requirefixations, complementary movements in differentbody segments. The impairment in fixations wasmanifest acutely and underwent no improvementwith subsequent training/testing. The finding thatcomplete and partial pyramidal tract lesionsproduce chronic impairment in fixations providesinsight for understanding clumsy behavior inhumans and its potential remediation via specifictraining in making fixations.

[学科分类] 精神健康和精神病学