Hole poking and motor coordination in lurcher mutant mice.

Lurcher mutant mice, a cerebellar mutant displaying ataxia and equilibrium deficits, had fewer hole pokes in a 16-hole matrix than normal mice. Lurcher mutants also took longer to reach a platform from a grid and to begin to climb a grid from the floor. However, the lurchers climbed as high as normal mice on the grid and their exploratory patterns of the holeboard were similar in many respects to normal mice, such as the ratio of center to peripheral hole exploration. In a wooden beam test, although lurchers did not differ from normal mice in terms of the amount of time spent on the beam or in the distance travelled, the mutants were found more often in unstable positions.