Skilled digit movements in feline and primate--recovery after selective spinal cord lesions.

Recovery of voluntary movements after partial spinal cord injury depends, in part, on a take-over of function via unlesioned pathways. Using precise forelimb movements in the cat as model, spinal pathways contributing to motor restitution have been investigated in more detail. The food-taking movement by which the cat graSPS a morsel of food with the digits and brings it to the mouth is governed by interneurones in the forelimb segments (C6-Th1) and is normally controlled via the cortico- and rubrospinal tracts.