Spared-root deafferentation of a cat's hindlimb: hierarchical regulation of pathways mediating recovery of motor behavior.

Previous studies showed that after complete hindlimb deafferentation in cats, the ipsilateral descending pathways mediated recovery of overground, goal-directed locomotion and accurate placement of the deafferented limb. In the present study deafferentations sparing one dorsal root (L6) were performed to see if the descending systems would still be responsible for the recovery. The partially deafferented hindlimb is initially impaired in postural reflexes and accurate placement during locomotion but considerable recovery occurs. A similar pattern of severe impairment and subsequent recovery is observed in cats in which the only lesion is L1 hemisection. When a hemisection is added 6 months later to chronic spared-root deafferentation the recovery (from the latter lesion) is temporarily reversed but the animals recover again in a fashion similar to that after hemisection alone. Since there is no recovery of overground locomotion when hemisection is added to complete deafferentation but there is when deafferentation is incomplete, the descending pathways apparently are not responsible for maintaining the recovery when one dorsal root is spared as they are when all are cut. The results suggest that a competitive or hierarchical control over residual systems may regulate recovery of motor function.