Background and Purpose Skilled reaching movements are an important aspect of human motor behavior, but are impaired following motor system stroke. The purpose of this study was to document skilled movements in mice before and after a focal motor cortex stroke for the purpose of developing a mouse model of human stroke. Methods Male C57/BL6 mice were trained to reach with a forelimb for food pel...

BACKGROUND Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, in which motor neurons degenerate, leading to paralysis, not only the affected motor neurons, but the surrounding non-neuronal cells also contribute significantly to the disease. However, the disease mechanism is not known. PURPOSE In this study we have addressed the disease mechanism by expressing the ALS associated mutant SOD1(G37R) in the motor neu...

OBJECTIVES Neurotoxicity of anticancer drugs complicates treatment of cancer patients. Vinblastine (VBL) is reported to induce motor and cognitive impairments in patients receiving chronic low-dose regimen. MATERIALS AND METHODS The effects of VBL treatment on motor, learning and memory functions of male and female Wistar rats were studied by behavioral related tests. Animals were given chron...

OBJECTIVE Fragile X premutation carriers (fXPCs) have an expansion of 55-200 CGG repeats in the FMR1 gene. Male fXPCs are at risk for developing a neurodegenerative motor disorder (FXTAS) often accompanied by inhibitory control impairments, even in fXPCs without motor symptoms. Inhibitory control impairments might precede, and thus indicate elevated risk for motor impairment associated with FXT...

In rodent stroke models, investigation of deficits in spatial memory using the Morris watermaze may be confounded by coexisting sensory or motor impairments. To target memory specifically, we devised a watermaze protocol to minimize the impact of sensory and motor impairments in female Lister-hooded rats exposed to proximal electrocoagulation of the middle cerebral artery (MCAO). Rats were trai...

Dysfunctions in dopaminergic neurotransmission lead to motor symptoms and cognitive impairments associated with behavioural disturbances. Parkinson's disease is a neurodegenerative disorder which is primarily characterized by an abnormal basal ganglia activity. Recently, increased attention has been directed towards the hippocampus in the development of non-motor symptoms. Given the temporal pr...

OBJECTIVE To investigate eye-hand coordination in stroke survivors and its relationship with sensori-motor impairments and hand functioning in daily life. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SUBJECTS Fifteen subjects with stroke (mean age 62.5 years (standard deviation (SD) 7.1); time post-stroke 5.2 years (SD 3.0)) recruited by convenience sampling. METHODS A fast finger-pointing task towards ...

Children with visual impairments (CWVI) generally perform poorer in gross motor skills when compared with their sighted peers. This study examined the influence of age, sex, and severity of visual impairment upon locomotor and object control skills in CWVI. Participants included 100 CWVI from across the United States who completed the Test of Gross Motor Development II (TGMD-II). The TGMD-II co...

Huntington's disease (HD) is caused by the expansion of a CAG repeat in the huntingtin (HTT) gene. The R6/2 mouse model of HD expresses a mutant version of exon 1 HTT and develops motor and cognitive impairments, a widespread huntingtin (HTT) aggregate pathology and brain atrophy. Despite the vast number of studies that have been performed on this model, the association between the molecular an...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Skilled reaching movements are an important aspect of human motor behavior but are impaired after motor system stroke. The purpose of this study was to document skilled movements in mice before and after a focal motor cortex stroke for the purpose of developing a mouse model of human stroke. METHODS Male C57/BL6 mice were trained to reach with a forelimb for food pellet...