Biomaterial Database

Medial frontal cortex lesions impair the aiming component of rat reaching. 1992

I Q Whishaw, and S M Pellis, and B P Gorny

Department of Psychology, University of Lethbridge, Alta., Canada.

This study examined the contribution of medial frontal cortex (the medial portion of supplementary motor cortex, or Fr1) to the performance of rats on trained, or 'skilled', reaching tasks. Unilateral medial frontal cortex lesions moderately impaired reaching success on a task that demanded accuracy but they did not impair performance on a less demanding reaching task nor did they affect limb preference. Kinematic analyses indicated that the aiming component, in which the forearm of the limb is aligned along the midline of the body by adduction of the elbow, was chronically impaired. Rather than adducting the elbow to aim, the rats used a number of limb and whole body postural adjustments to compensate for incomplete or absent aiming. That medial frontal cortex is involved in the execution of at least one component of skilled reaching implies that a larger area of frontal cortex is involved in skilled limb movement than has been suggested by previous studies. The results also suggest that the different regions of frontal cortex may each have a relatively selective involvement in the execution of only a subset of the movements comprising a reach.

UI	MeSH Term	Description	Entries
D007699	Kinesthesis	Sense of movement of a part of the body, such as movement of fingers, elbows, knees, limbs, or weights.	Kinesthesia,Kinesthetic Sense,Movement Sensation,Kinestheses,Kinesthesias,Kinesthetic Senses,Movement Sensations
D009044	Motor Cortex	Area of the FRONTAL LOBE concerned with primary motor control located in the dorsal PRECENTRAL GYRUS immediately anterior to the central sulcus. It is comprised of three areas: the primary motor cortex located on the anterior paracentral lobule on the medial surface of the brain; the premotor cortex located anterior to the primary motor cortex; and the supplementary motor area located on the midline surface of the hemisphere anterior to the primary motor cortex.	Brodmann Area 4,Brodmann Area 6,Brodmann's Area 4,Brodmann's Area 6,Premotor Cortex and Supplementary Motor Cortex,Premotor and Supplementary Motor Cortices,Anterior Central Gyrus,Gyrus Precentralis,Motor Area,Motor Strip,Precentral Gyrus,Precentral Motor Area,Precentral Motor Cortex,Premotor Area,Premotor Cortex,Primary Motor Area,Primary Motor Cortex,Secondary Motor Areas,Secondary Motor Cortex,Somatic Motor Areas,Somatomotor Areas,Supplementary Motor Area,Area 4, Brodmann,Area 4, Brodmann's,Area 6, Brodmann,Area 6, Brodmann's,Area, Motor,Area, Precentral Motor,Area, Premotor,Area, Primary Motor,Area, Secondary Motor,Area, Somatic Motor,Area, Somatomotor,Area, Supplementary Motor,Brodmann's Area 6s,Brodmanns Area 4,Brodmanns Area 6,Central Gyrus, Anterior,Cortex, Motor,Cortex, Precentral Motor,Cortex, Premotor,Cortex, Primary Motor,Cortex, Secondary Motor,Cortices, Secondary Motor,Gyrus, Anterior Central,Gyrus, Precentral,Motor Area, Precentral,Motor Area, Primary,Motor Area, Secondary,Motor Area, Somatic,Motor Areas,Motor Cortex, Precentral,Motor Cortex, Primary,Motor Cortex, Secondary,Motor Strips,Precentral Motor Areas,Precentral Motor Cortices,Premotor Areas,Primary Motor Areas,Primary Motor Cortices,Secondary Motor Area,Secondary Motor Cortices,Somatic Motor Area,Somatomotor Area,Supplementary Motor Areas
D009949	Orientation	Awareness of oneself in relation to time, place and person.	Cognitive Orientation,Mental Orientation,Psychological Orientation,Cognitive Orientations,Mental Orientations,Orientation, Cognitive,Orientation, Mental,Orientation, Psychological,Orientations,Orientations, Cognitive,Orientations, Mental,Orientations, Psychological,Psychological Orientations
D011597	Psychomotor Performance	The coordination of a sensory or ideational (cognitive) process and a motor activity.	Perceptual Motor Performance,Sensory Motor Performance,Visual Motor Coordination,Coordination, Visual Motor,Coordinations, Visual Motor,Motor Coordination, Visual,Motor Coordinations, Visual,Motor Performance, Perceptual,Motor Performance, Sensory,Motor Performances, Perceptual,Motor Performances, Sensory,Perceptual Motor Performances,Performance, Perceptual Motor,Performance, Psychomotor,Performance, Sensory Motor,Performances, Perceptual Motor,Performances, Psychomotor,Performances, Sensory Motor,Psychomotor Performances,Sensory Motor Performances,Visual Motor Coordinations
D011939	Mental Recall	The process whereby a representation of past experience is elicited.	Recall, Mental
D001931	Brain Mapping	Imaging techniques used to colocalize sites of brain functions or physiological activity with brain structures.	Brain Electrical Activity Mapping,Functional Cerebral Localization,Topographic Brain Mapping,Brain Mapping, Topographic,Functional Cerebral Localizations,Mapping, Brain,Mapping, Topographic Brain
D004292	Dominance, Cerebral	Dominance of one cerebral hemisphere over the other in cerebral functions.	Cerebral Dominance,Hemispheric Specialization,Dominances, Cerebral,Specialization, Hemispheric
D005260	Female		Females
D005552	Forelimb	A front limb of a quadruped. (The Random House College Dictionary, 1980)	Forelimbs
D000818	Animals	Unicellular or multicellular, heterotrophic organisms, that have sensation and the power of voluntary movement. Under the older five kingdom paradigm, Animalia was one of the kingdoms. Under the modern three domain model, Animalia represents one of the many groups in the domain EUKARYOTA.	Animal,Metazoa,Animalia