[The relationship of the dynamics of the recovery of a manipulatory habit after unilateral neocortical damage in white rats with a limb preference and free choice].

The choice of a forelimb by a rat within two months after the damage of the left motor cortex (the right motor cortex remaining intact) depended on the degree of recovery of the injured forelimb. There was no such correlation when the right hemisphere was damaged. Distinctions in the course of recovery after the left- and right-hemisphere injury were most pronounced in the ambidextrous rats. Under free choice conditions within two months after the injury the "handed" rats predominantly chose the initially preferred ("damaged") forelimb, while ambidextrous rats preferred to use both forelimbs.