M. Illert et A. Boczekfuncke, THE TARGET-REACHING AND FOOD-TAKING BEHAVIOR IN THE CAT - A MODEL FORTHE INVESTIGATION OF RECOVERY OF MOTOR FUNCTIONS, NeuroRehabilitation, 10(2), 1998, pp. 91-106
The recovery of motor functions after CNS lesions is a complex action
with several restitutional processes occurring in parallel. To describ
e the function-oriented phenomena and to understand the organisational
changes within the neuronal systems in question there is the urgent n
eed for investigations relating the impairment of defined neuronal sys
tems with quantitative and qualitative changes of a behavioural motor
paradigm. The system of the C3-C4 propriospinal neurones in the cat is
one of the models which could serve such a purpose. It relays disynap
tic excitation from several supraspinal motor centres to forelimb moto
neurones, parallel to the input to the motoneurones from the same cent
res via the segmental reflex apparatus. Behavioural studies indicate t
hat the motor command for reaching towards a target with the forelimb
is to a large extent mediated in the C3-C4 propriospinal system, where
as the command for taking of the object seems to be organised in the i
nterneuronal systems of the forelimb segments, not depending on an int
egration in the C3-C4 propriospinal relay. The paper reviews different
studies which have analysed the effects of lesions of various motor c
entres and tracts on this behavioural paradigm. It becomes evident tha
t different components of the motor behaviour have different restituti
onal capacities. The quantitative analysis of the various dimensions o
f the cat forelimb together with the possibility to perform localised
lesions within defined neuronal systems make this experimental approac
h suited for the investigation of integrative aspects related to the r
estitution of function within systems organising motor behaviour.