Forelimb Motor Skills Deficits Following Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury: Underlying Dopaminergic and Neural Oscillatory Changes in Rat Primary Motor Cortex.

ABSTRACT: The loss of spinal sensorimotor pathways following spinal cord injury (SCI) can induce retrograde neurodegeneration in the primary motor cortex (M1). However, the effect of thoracic SCI on forelimb motor skills has not been studied clearly. So, herein we aimed to examine the effects of the thoracic SCI model on forelimb motor skills learning, parallel with dopaminergic and oscillatory changes in hindlimb and forelimb areas (HLA and FLA) of M1 in rats. Male Wistar rats were randomly subjected to laminectomy (Control) or contusion SCI at the thoracic (T10) level. Oscillatory activity and motor skills performance were evaluated for six consecutive days using local field potential (LFP) recording and skilled forelimb reaching task, respectively. Dopamine (DA) levels and expression of dopamine

SUBMITTER: Salimi O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8495518 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan-Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature