期刊名称:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN:0027-8424
电子版ISSN:1091-6490
出版年度:2010
卷号:107
期号:7
页码:3192-3197
DOI:10.1073/pnas.0914962107
语种:English
出版社:The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要:When somatosensory cortex (S1) is deprived of some of its inputs after section of ascending afferents in the dorsal columns of the spinal cord, it reorganizes to overrepresent the surviving inputs. As somatosensory cortex provides guiding sensory information to motor cortex, such sensory loss and representational reorganization could affect the development of the motor map in primary motor cortex (M1), especially if the sensory loss occurs early in development. To address this possibility, the dorsal columns of the spinal cord were sectioned between cervical levels (C3-5) 3-12 days after birth in five macaque monkeys. After 3-5 years of maturation (young adults), we determined how movements were represented in M1 contralateral to the lesion by using microelectrodes to electrically stimulate sites in M1 to evoke movements. Although the details of the motor maps in these five monkeys varied, the forelimb motor maps were abnormal. The representations of digit movements were reduced and abnormally arranged. Current levels for evoking movements from the forelimb region of M1 were in the normal range, but the lowest mean stimulation thresholds were for wrist or elbow instead of digit movements. Incomplete lesions and bilateral lesions produced fewer abnormalities. The results suggest that the development of normal motor cortex maps in M1 depends on sensory feedback from somatosensory maps.