Norepinephrine depletion impairs motor recovery following sensorimotor cortex injury in the rat
- 1 January 1991
- journal article
- Published by SAGE Publications in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience
- Vol. 3 (1) , 41-47
- https://doi.org/10.3233/rnn-1991-3105
Abstract
Beam-walking in the rat provides a method for investigating the effects of drugs on motor recovery following unilateral injury to the sensorimotor cortex. In the present experiment, the impact of norepinephrine depletion on beam-walking recovery was investigated. Groups of rats were first given either the neurotoxin DSP-4 or saline. Two weeks later, the animals were trained at the beam-walking task. Rats were then subjected to either a unilateral sensorimotor cortex lesion or sham operation. Recovery of beam-walking performance was measured over the next 12 days. Pretreatment with DSP-4 significantly slowed the rate of recovery but did not significantly affect sham-operated rats. Norepinephrine was significantly diminished in both lesioned and sham-operated rats that had been given DSP-4. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that recovery of beam-walking in the rat is mediated, at least in part, through noradrenergic neurons.This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: