Neurological and behavioral effects of a unilateral frontal cortical lesions in fetal kittens. I. Brain morphology, movement, posture, and sensorimotor tests.
Nine fetal kittens sustained removal of the left frontal cortex during the last third of gestation (E 43-55) and were compared to animals sustaining a similar lesion postnatally (P 8-14) as well as to littermate controls. Starting after 6 months of age the animals received a comprehensive battery of movement, posture and sensorimotor tests. The prenatal-lesioned cats performed worse in practically all 15 tests applied (significantly in 13 of them) compared to the neonatal-lesioned cats. Impairments included contralateral paresis of the limbs and face, defective limb placing reactions (with almost absence of the contact components) and a slight extensor hypertonus; tactile hypoesthesia in the contralateral face and hind paw; a bias not to use the contralateral forepaw in a food retrieval task, and an ipsilateral body turning bias. The neonatal-lesioned animals only showed minor defects in the contact components of the limb placing reactions and a tendency to a body turning bias. Morphologically, the brains of the prenatal-lesioned cats, but not of neonatal-lesioned or intact control cats, showed bilateral disruption of the cortical sulcal and gyral patterns, shrinkage of the ipsilateral hemisphere, and reduction in volume of the ipsilateral thalamus and cortex. We concluded, contrary to expectations, that the consequences of a prenatal brain lesion in the cat are worse than when a similar lesion is sustained neonatally.
Villablanca
J R
JR
Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences, UCLA School of Medicine 90024.
Hovda
D A
DA
Jackson
G F
GF
Gayek
R
R
D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D001931:Brain Mapping; D002415:Cats; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000196:embryology* / Q000502:physiology; D005865:Gestational Age; D008124:Locomotion / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D009048:Motor Skills / Q000502:physiology*; D009416:Nerve Regeneration / Q000502:physiology; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D004856:Postural Balance / Q000502:physiology; D011187:Posture / Q000502:physiology*; D011247:Pregnancy; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D012677:Sensation / Q000502:physiology*; D014110:Touch / Q000502:physiology