Analysis of skilled forelimb movement in rats: The single pellet reaching test and staircase test

Current Protocols in Neuroscience

Volumn 1, Issue SUPPL.58, 2012, Pages

  Klein, Alexander ^a   Dunnett, Stephen B ^a  

^a CARDIFF UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Motor deficits; Motor impairment; Motor skills and habits; Neurodegenerative disease; Reach to eat; Skilled reaching; Staircase test

Indexed keywords

ANIMAL BEHAVIOR; ANIMAL EXPERIMENT; ARTICLE; BODY MOVEMENT; CLINICAL PROTOCOL; CONTROLLED STUDY; DIET RESTRICTION; EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN; EXPERIMENTAL TEST; FORELIMB; GRIP STRENGTH; LIMB MOVEMENT; MOTOR PERFORMANCE; NONHUMAN; PRIORITY JOURNAL; QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS; RAT; RESPONSE TIME; SINGLE PELLET REACHING TEST; STAIRCASE TEST; TASK PERFORMANCE; ANIMAL; DISEASE MODEL; HEMISPHERIC DOMINANCE; MOVEMENT (PHYSIOLOGY); PHYSIOLOGY;

ANIMALS; BEHAVIOR, ANIMAL; DISEASE MODELS, ANIMAL; FORELIMB; FUNCTIONAL LATERALITY; MOTOR SKILLS; MOVEMENT; RATS;

EID: 84868114021     PISSN: 19348584     EISSN: 19348576     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1002/0471142301.ns0828s58     Document Type: Article

References (31)

1. Abrous, D.N. and Dunnett, S.B. 1994. Skilled paw reaching in rats: The staircase test. Neurosci. Protoc. 3:1-11.
2. Alaverdashvili, M. and Whishaw, I.Q. 2010. Compensation aids skilled reaching in aging and in recovery from forelimb motor cortex stroke in the rat. Neuroscience 167:21-30.
3. Alaverdashvili, M., Leblond, H., Rossignol, S., and Whishaw, I.Q. 2008a. Cineradiographic (video X-ray) analysis of skilled reaching in a single pellet reaching task provides insight into relative contribution of body, head, oral, and forelimb movement in rats. Behav. Brain Res. 192:232-247.
4. Alaverdashvili, M., Moon, S.K., Beckman, C.D., Virag, A., and Whishaw, I.Q. 2008b. Acute but not chronic differences in skilled reaching for food following motor cortex devascularization vs. photothrombotic stroke in the rat. Neuroscience 157:297-308.
5. Baird, A.L., Meldrum, A., and Dunnett, S.B. 2001. The staircase test of skilled reaching in mice. Brain Res. Bull. 54:243-250.
6. Cenci, M.A.,Whishaw, I.Q., and Schallert, T. 2002. Animal models of neurological deficits: How relevant is the rat? Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 3:574-579.
7. Cordeiro, K.K., Jiang,W., Papazoglou, A., Tenorio, S.B., Dobrossy, M., and Nikkhah, G. 2010. Graft-mediated functional recovery on a skilled forelimb use paradigm in a rodent model of Parkinson's disease is dependent on reward contingency. Behav. Brain Res. 212:187-195.
8. Foroud, A. and Whishaw, I.Q. 2006. Changes in the kinematic structure and non-kinematic features ofmovements during skilled reaching after stroke: a Laban Movement Analysis in two case studies. J. Neurosci. Methods 158:137-149.
9. Fricker-Gates, R.A., Smith, R., Muhith, J., and Dunnett, S.B. 2003. The role of pretraining on skilled forelimb use in an animal model of Huntington's disease. Cell Transplant. 12:257-264.
10. Gharbawie, O.A., Williams, P.T., Kolb, B., and Whishaw, I.Q. 2008. Transient middle cerebral artery occlusion disrupts the forelimbmovement representations of rat motor cortex. Eur. J. Neurosci. 28:951-963.
11. Iwaniuk, A.N. andWhishaw, I.Q. 2000. On the origin of skilled forelimb movements. Trends Neurosci. 23:372-376.
12. Karl, J.M. and Whishaw, I.Q. 2011. Rodent skilled reaching for modeling pathological conditions of the human motor system. In Animal Models of Movement Disorders, Vol. I (E.L. Lane and S.B. Dunnett, eds.) pp. 87-107. Humana Press, New York.
13. Klein, A., Metz, G.A., Papazoglou, A., and Nikkhah, G. 2007. Differential effects on forelimb grasping behavior induced by fetal dopaminergic grafts in hemiparkinsonian rats. Neurobiol. Dis. 27:24-35.
14. Klein, A., Sacrey, L.A., Dunnett, S.B., Whishaw, I.Q., and Nikkhah, G. 2011. Proximal movements compensate for distal forelimbmovement impairments in a reach-to-eat task in Huntington's disease: New insights into motor impairments in a real-world skill. Neurobiol. Dis. 41:560-569.
15. Metz, G.A. and Whishaw, I.Q. 2000. Skilled reaching an action pattern: Stability in rat (Rattus norvegicus) grasping movements as a function of changing food pellet size. Behav. Brain Res. 116:111-122.
16. Miklyaeva, E.I., Castaneda, E., and Whishaw, I.Q. 1994. Skilled reaching deficits in unilateral dopamine-depleted rats: Impairments in movement and posture and compensatory adjustments. J. Neurosci. 14:7148-7158.
17. Montoya, C.P., Astell, S., and Dunnett, S.B. 1990. Effects of nigral and striatal grafts on skilled forelimb use in the rat. Prog. Brain Res. 82:459-466.
18. Montoya, C.P., Campbell-Hope, L.J., Pemberton, K.D., and Dunnett, S.B. 1991. The "staircase test": A measure of independent forelimb reaching and grasping abilities in rats. J. Neurosci. Methods 36:219-228.
19. Nikkhah, G., Falkenstein, G., and Rosenthal, C. 2001. Restorative plasticity of dopamine neuronal transplants depends on the degree of hemispheric dominance. J. Neurosci. 21:6252-6263.
20. Sacrey, L.A., Alaverdashvili, M., and Whishaw, I.Q. 2009a. Similar hand shaping in reachingfor-food (skilled reaching) in rats and humans provides evidence of homology in release, collection, and manipulation movements. Behav. Brain Res. 204:153-161.
21. Sacrey, L.A., Clark, C.A., and Whishaw, I.Q. 2009b. Music attenuates excessive visual guidance of skilled reaching in advanced but not mild Parkinson's disease. PLoS One 4: e6841.
22. Sacrey, L.A., Travis, S.G., andWhishaw, I.Q. 2011. Drug treatment and familiar music aids an attention shift from vision to somatosensation in Parkinson's disease on the reach-to-eat task. Behav. Brain Res. 217:391-398.
23. Whishaw, I.Q. 1992. Lateralization and reaching skill related: Results and implications from a large sample of Long-Evans rats. Behav. Brain Res. 52:45-48.
24. Whishaw, I.Q. and Gorny, B. 1994. Arpeggio and fractionated digit movements used in prehension by rats. Behav. Brain Res. 60:15-24.
25. Whishaw, I.Q. and Pellis, S.M. 1990. The structure of skilled forelimb reaching in the rat: A proximally driven movement with a single distal rotatory component. Behav. Brain Res. 41:49-59.
26. Whishaw, I.Q., O'Connor, W.T., and Dunnett, S.B. 1986. The contributions of motor cortex, nigrostriatal dopamine and caudate-putamen to skilled forelimb use in the rat. Brain 109:805-843.
27. Whishaw, I.Q., Pellis, S.M., and Gorny, B.P. 1992. Skilled reaching in rats and humans: Evidence for parallel development or homology. Behav. Brain Res. 47:59-70.
28. Whishaw, I.Q., Woodward, N.C., Miklyaeva, E., and Pellis, S.M. 1997. Analysis of limb use by control rats and unilateral DA-depleted rats in the Montoya staircase test: Movements, impairments and compensatory strategies. Behav. Brain Res. 89:167-177.
29. Whishaw, I.Q., Suchowersky, O., Davis, L., Sarna, J., Metz, G.A., and Pellis, S.M. 2002. Impairment of pronation, supination, and body coordination in reach-to-grasp tasks in human Parkinson's disease (PD) reveals homology to deficits in animal models. Behav. Brain Res. 133:165-176.
30. Whishaw, I.Q., Zeeb, F., Erickson, C., and McDonald, R.J. 2007. Neurotoxic lesions of the caudate-putamen on a reaching for food task in the rat: Acute sensorimotor neglect and chronic qualitative motor impairment follow lateral lesions and improved success follows medial lesions. Neuroscience 146:86-97.
31. Whishaw, I.Q., Alaverdashvili, M., and Kolb, B. 2008. The problem of relating plasticity and skilled reaching after motor cortex stroke in the rat. Behav. Brain Res. 192:124-136.