Gonzalez M F, Poncelet A, Loken J E, Sharp F R
Behav Brain Res. 1986 Oct;22(1):75-84. doi: 10.1016/0166-4328(86)90082-3.
Eight rats were trained to use their left paw to rapidly press the right lever of an operant chamber once and the left lever twice to obtain a food reward. Between-levers interresponse times and same lever interresponse times were measured daily for several weeks before and after bilateral removal of frontal motor/sensory cortex. This surgery resulted in a permanent deficit in most rats' ability to rapidly alternate between levers, but resulted in only a temporary deficit in their ability to rapidly press the same lever. Sham surgery and removal of hindlimb motor cortex had little immediate effect on interresponse times. The data demonstrate that sequential motor behavior tested in the between-levers tasks is chronically affected by cortical lesions, but the speed of the same repetitive movement tested in the same lever task is not. Measuring the time to rapidly alternate between two different levers, therefore, provides a quantitative method for measuring acute and chronic forelimb motor deficits due to motor cortex injury in rats which could be applied to any mammal.
八只大鼠经过训练，用左爪快速按压操作箱的右杠杆一次、左杠杆两次以获取食物奖励。在双侧额叶运动/感觉皮层切除前后的数周内，每天测量杠杆间反应间隔时间和同一杠杆的反应间隔时间。该手术导致大多数大鼠在杠杆间快速交替的能力出现永久性缺陷，但在快速按压同一杠杆的能力方面仅导致暂时缺陷。假手术和后肢运动皮层切除对反应间隔时间几乎没有立即影响。数据表明，在杠杆间任务中测试的顺序运动行为受到皮层损伤的长期影响，但在同一杠杆任务中测试的相同重复运动的速度不受影响。因此，测量在两个不同杠杆间快速交替的时间，为测量大鼠因运动皮层损伤导致的急性和慢性前肢运动缺陷提供了一种定量方法，该方法可应用于任何哺乳动物。
