The effects of sciatic nerve crush (SNC) and treatment with Riluzole on muscle activity during unrestrained locomotion were identified in an animal model by analysis of the EMG activity recorded from soleus (Sol) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) muscles of both hindlimbs; in intact rats (IN) and in groups of rats treated for 14 days with saline (S) or Riluzole (R) after right limb nerve crush at the 1st (1S and 1R) or 2nd (2S and 2R) day after birth. Changes in the locomotor pattern of EMG activity were correlated with the numbers of survived motor units (MUs) identified in investigated muscles. S rats with 2-8 and 10-28 MUs that survived in Sol and EDL muscles respectively showed increases in the duration and duty factor of muscle EMG activity and a loss of correlation between the duty factors of muscle activity, and abnormal flexor-extensor co-activation 3 months after SNC.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFForelimb-hindlimb coordination in adult rats moving freely along 2m long runway was investigated using the method of footprint recording. Rats were divided into 3 groups with different extent of spinal lesions (T(9)). Before surgery rats moved with a mean locomotor speed of 73±20 to 96±18cms(-1), stride lengths of 17.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: The aim of this study was to develop a method for the automatic detection of sharp wave-slow wave (SWSW) patterns evoked in EEG by volatile anesthetics and to identify the patterns' characteristics.
Methods: The proposed method consisted in the k-NN classification with a reference set obtained using expert knowledge, the morphology of the EEG patterns and the condition for their synchronization. The decision rules were constructed and evaluated using 24h EEG records in ten patients.
In six rats with incomplete low thoracic spinal cord lesions of different extent, basic gait indices such as locomotor speed, step cycle duration, soleus (Sol) muscle activity duration, the interval between the onsets of Sol and tibialis anterior (TA) muscle activities and interlimb coordination were investigated by EMG analysis of the Sol and TA muscles recorded using chronic electrodes. The operated animals were divided into two subgroups: (1) those with a smaller lesion involving the dorsal quadrants of the spinal cord and, to a variable extent, the ventrolateral funiculi, and (2) those with an extensive lesion sparing only parts of the ventral funiculi. The locomotion of all rats was tested once a week for the first 5 weeks postsurgery and then once or twice a month, up to 3.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIn rats with incomplete low thoracic spinal cord lesions of different extents, the basic indices of gait such as locomotor velocity, step and stance phase duration and the duty factor (i.e., the relative duration of the stance phase) during overground runway locomotion were analyzed using contact electrodes on each paw for data recording.
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