Motor coordination animal studies

In an interesting study by Isaacson and Fahey (1987), NaNCh was shown to impair motor performance on a rotorod, but only when the motor coordination task was preceded by water immersion stress. Isaacson and Fahey suggested that MHb-re-lated hypoxia alone does not directly impair certain motor behaviors, because no differences in MHb levels were observed between stress and nonstressed animals. 

Other animal studies have shown that acute and subacute exposure to GB can result in neurobehavioral changes in the test animals. Single intramuscular (i.m.) injections of 6 pg GB/kg to marmosets resulted in adverse behavioral effects when the animals were tested for hand-eye coordination, but no adverse effects were seen in a visual discrimation test (Wolthuis 1992). A dose of 3 pg/ kg had no adverse effects on behavior, and hand-eye coordination was improved in three of six animals (Wolthuis 1992). An intraperitoneal (i.p.) dose of 50 pg GB/kg resulted in decreases in rearing and grooming behavior and locomotive activity in male Wistar rats (Nieminen et al. 1990). A subcutaneous (s.c.) injection of 61 pg GB/kg increased spontaneous motor activity in male Sprague-Dawley rats a dose of 71 pg/kg produced conditioned flavor aversions 84 and 115 pg/kg caused significant decreases in spontaneous locomotive activity and... 

The microdevice can be easily tailored to study the motor control and the motor coordination in a vast range of small animals [88]. 

Most research workers who have assessed motor coordination in rats have not found it to be affected by lead, even at high doses. Tests of coordination usually measure the animal s ability to remain on a slowly rotating rod. Exceptions are the studies of Overmann (1977) and Overmann et al (1981). It has also been demonstrated that there were differences in performance on this test between rats allowed free access to water, and those where access was restricted. The rats allowed free access to water were physically slightly larger, and this was thought to be the reason for the differences in performance. 

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