Motor responses mediated by orthodromic and antidromic activation of the rostral portion of the cat corpus callosum

Experimental Brain Research
G SpidalieriG Franchi

Abstract

The effects of microstimulation of the rostral portion of the corpus callosum (CC) were examined in seven chronic cats submitted to either unilateral motor cortex ablation (5 preparations) or transection of the rostral two thirds of the CC (2 preparations) in order to identify the routes (ortho- or antidromic) followed by callosal impulses to provoke the motor effects. As in intact animals, motor responses in lesioned preparations consisted of very localized contractions of shoulder, whisker, or eyelid muscles, according to the stimulated sites. Unlike intact animals in which motor responses upon CC microstimulation were bilateral and symmetrical (Spidalieri and Guandalini 1983), in lesioned preparations they appeared contralaterally to the emitting hemisphere, i.e., they were contralateral to the stimulated callosal stump (split-brain preparations) and ipsilateral to the side of the cortical lesion (preparations with unilateral motor cortex ablation), regardless of the current intensity applied (up to a maximum of 50 microA). The unilateral motor responses occurred by the first day after lesion and persisted for the duration of the experiments which lasted to a month or more. Since orthograde degeneration of callosal fibres de...Continue Reading

Citations

Mar 15, 2016·Clinical Neurophysiology : Official Journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology·Christopher CabibJosep Valls-Solé

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