Training in a cooperative bimanual skilled reaching task, the popcorn retrieval task, improves unimanual function after motor cortical infarcts in rats.

ABSTRACT: Disuse of the paretic hand after stroke is encouraged by compensatory reliance on the nonparetic hand, to exacerbate impairment and potentially constrain motor rehabilitation efficacy. Rodent stroke model findings support that learning new unimanual skills with the nonparetic forelimb diminishes functional improvements that can be driven by rehabilitative training of the paretic forelimb. The influence of learning new ways of skillfully using the two hands together on paretic side function is much less clear. To begin to explore this, we developed a new cooperative bimanual skilled reaching task for rats, the Popcorn Retrieval Task. After motor cortical infarcts impaired an established unimanual reaching skill in the paretic forelimb, rats underwent a 7 week period of de novo bimanual trai

SUBMITTER: Dutcher AM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7673257 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature