Dr. Otto Soltmann (1876) on development of the motor cortex and recovery after its removal in infancy

In 1870, Fritsch and Hitzig demonstrated that dogs have a motor cortex. In a chapter published 6 years later, otto Soltmann studied the functional dev elopment of the motor cortex, which he believed functioned in willed moveme nt. He was the first to show that the dog's motor cortex becomes electrical ly excitable at about 10 days of age, with the contralateral forepaw area a ppearing first. He also studied the effects of ablating the cortical motor regions unilaterally and bilaterally, and encountered a remarkable degree o f sparing of function in his animals operated on as newborns, but not in ol der-operated dogs. Soltmann turned to the theory of functional take-over (v icariation) to account for the absence of deficits in his young animals. He was especially intrigued by the fact that electrical stimulation of a heal thy motor cortex could produce bilateral matched movements, but only in dog s that sustained opposite motor cortex lesions very early in life. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.