Quantitative and Qualitative Impairments in Skilled Reaching in the Mouse (Mus musculus) After a Focal Motor Cortex Stroke

Background and Purpose— Skilled reaching movements are an important aspect of human motor behavior but are impaired after motor system stroke. The purpose of this study was to document skilled movements in mice before and after a focal motor cortex stroke for the purpose of developing a mouse model of human stroke. Methods— Male C57/BL6 mice were trained to reach with a forelimb for food pellets and then given a motor cortex stroke, induced by pial stripping, contralateral to their preferred reaching limb. Reaching success and the movements used in reaching were analyzed by frame-by-frame inspection of presurgical and postsurgical video records. Results— Reaching success was severely impaired after the stroke. Improvement in success over 2 postsurgical weeks was moderate. Analysis of 10 movement components comprising reaches pre- and postsurgically indicated that most of the rotatory movements of the limb used for aiming, advancing, pronating, and supinating the paw were impaired. When successful reaches did occur, body movements that compensated for the impairments in limb rotatory movements aided them. Conclusions— The results indicate that skilled reaching in the mouse is impaired by focal motor cortex stroke and they suggest that the mouse, and the skilled reaching task, provides an excellent model for studying impairments, compensation, and recovery after motor system stroke.