AMELIORATION OF SENSORY ATTENTION AND SENSORIMOTOR DEFICITS BY CHROMAFFIN CELL GRAFTS TO THE CEREBRAL-CORTEX OF NUCLEUS BASALIS MAGNOCELLULARIS LESIONED RATS

Rats that have received lesions to the nucleus basalis magnocellularis display with a variety of behavioral deficits; among these are decrea ses in performance of maze tests as well as deficiencies on measures o f general health, sensory attention and sensorimotor abilities. We hav e previously shown that grafts of chromaffin cells placed in the cereb ral cortex of nucleus basalis magnocellularis lesioned rats can amelio rate the lesion-induced deficits in performance of a task involving sp atial memory. In the present study, we find that lesion-induced defici ts in the sensory attention measure of exploration of the environment (head scanning) as well as the sensorimotor behavior involving a rat r ighting itself when placed nose down on an inclined grid are evident a t 8 weeks post-lesion in lesioned-alone rats; these deficits are signi ficantly ameliorated by chromaffin cell grafts in the cerebral cortex placed two weeks following the lesion procedure. These findings may ha ve relevance to the use of chromaffin cells for grafting in neurodegen erative disorders in which sensorimotor or attention deficit component s are involved.