Rotational behavior in gerbils following unilateral common carotid artery ligation.

Unilateral cerebral infarctions are produced in 30-50% of all gerbils subjected to ipsilateral ligation of a common carotid artery. It has previously been shown that this infarction is associated with a major depletion if ipsilateral brain dopamine. The present studies characterize the spontaneous and drug-induced rotational behavior manifested by these animals and attempt to relate it to the functional activity of dopaminergic synapses. The tendency of animals to turn towards the side of the lesion 2-3 hours after surgery was found to correlate highly with the unilateral dopamine depletion observed after 24 hours. Two patterns of rotational responses were observed among animals showing symptoms that were treated with d-amphetamine or apomorphine; these could be correlated with mortality 24 hours after surgery.