UTILIZATION OF THE DENNY-BROWN COLLECTION - DIFFERENTIAL RECOVERY OF FORELIMB AND HIND-LIMB STEPPING AFTER EXTENSIVE UNILATERAL CEREBRAL-LESIONS

The Denny-Brown collection of primate lesion material was used to test the hypothesis that there is a difference in the rate of forelimb and hind limb recovery of locomotor movements after major unilateral cere bral ablation (pre/postcentral gyrus, decortication or hemispherectomy ). The results indicate that, following major cerebral injury, hind li mb recovery precedes that of the forelimb in adolescent and adult prim ates, but not in infants. This suggests that there is an underlying ph ysiological basis to the widely-held belief that, in humans, lower lim b recovery after stroke is generally more complete than that of the up per limb.