Decorticate spasticity: a re-examination using quantitative assessment in the primate.

Decorticate spasticity in the squirrel monkey was chosen as a convenient laboratory model of spasticity capable of quantitative assessment upon which to evaluate various currently popular clinical spasmolytic measures. The effects of a wide variety of cortical lesions were studied involving primary and supplementary motor, premotor and parietal cortex unilaterally and bilaterally, measuring muscle tone with the evoked integrated E.M.G. technique. Measurable spasticity resulted only if primary motor cortex was ablated bilaterally usually but not always preferentially involving biceps brachii and quadriceps. Resulting postures were variable offering no justification for the term "decorticate posture". The integrated evoked E.M.G. was proportional to rate of stretch and chiefly phasic in type as in hemiplegic man. Stereotactic dentatectomy resulted in profound ipsilateral reduction in this spasticity, but was without effect in intercollicular or anemic decerebrate cats. The mechanism of the spasticity and of the cerebellar effects are discussed.