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[Periodicity of corticospinal motor reactions of rat pups]
Insights
Early postnatal development in rats shows corticospinal and spinal cord interactions. Stimulation reveals periodic motor activity and changing motor response intensity, suggesting spinal cord periodic processes.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Developmental Biology
- Motor Control
Context:
- Investigates early postnatal development in rats.
- Examines the interaction between corticospinal pathways and spinal automatisms.
- Focuses on the period from the first week of postnatal life.
Purpose:
- To understand how corticospinal input influences spinal motor activity during development.
- To explore the nature of periodic processes within the developing spinal cord.
- To determine if spinal excitability exhibits periodic changes.
Summary:
- Epicortical stimulation at 0.5-1/s induces periodic motor activity in young rats.
- In later stages, the same stimulation elicits motor responses with intensity modulated by the stimulation rhythm.
- These findings suggest that inherent periodic processes in the spinal cord underlie both motor excitation and excitability fluctuations.
Impact:
- Provides insights into the maturation of motor control systems.
- Highlights the role of spinal cord intrinsic properties in shaping motor output.
- Contributes to understanding neural plasticity and network dynamics during development.
Abstract:
It has been demonstrated that at early stages of postnatal development of rats, corticospinal effects interact with spinal automatism. Epicortical stimulation at a frequency 0.5-1/s causes the onset of periodic motor activity during the first week of postnatal life; at later stages the same stimulation evokes periodically changing (with respect to their intensity) motor responses which follow the rhythm of stimulation. It is suggested that autogenic periodic processes in the spinal cord manifest themselves not only in periodic motor excitation, but in periodic changes of excitability as well.