HOLE POKING AND MOTOR COORDINATION IN LURCHER MUTANT MICE

Lurcher mutant mice, a cerebellar mutant displaying ataxia and equilib rium deficits, had fewer hole pokes in a 16-hole matrix than normal mi ce. Lurcher mutants also took longer to reach a platform from a grid a nd to begin to climb a grid from the floor. However, the lurchers clim bed as high as normal mice on the grid and their exploratory patterns of the holeboard were similar in many respects to normal mice, such as the ratio of center to peripheral hole exploration. In a wooden beam test, although lurchers did not differ from normal mice in terms of th e amount of time spent on the beam or in the distance travelled, the m utants were found more often in unstable positions.