EARLY DEVELOPMENT OF SYNCHRONIZED WALKING ON THE ROTOROD IN RATS - EFFECTS OF TRAINING AND HANDLING

There is considerable improvement of motor coordination on the rotorod during the first 3 weeks of development in rats. The purpose of the p resent study was to determine some factors implicated in this improvem ent. From days 15-22 of age, rats were: (I) extensively trained on the rotorod; (2) minimally trained on the rotorod; (3) handled daily but not trained on the rotorod; and (4) neither handled nor trained. All a nimals were tested on the rotorod on day 23, with separate groups of t he naive rats also being tested on days 19, 20, 21 or 22. Latencies be fore falling and the percentage of time spent walking in time to the m ovement of the rotating rod were recorded. There was a close correspon dence between these two scores during ontogeny. The percentage of time spent walking was similar among extensively trained, minimally traine d, and handled rats and significantly higher than that measured in rat s tested only on 1 day. These results indicate that the emergence of t his postural sensorimotor skill is more dependent on the maturation of sensorimotor brain region than on previous training on the apparatus. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.