No abstract available.
Biofeedback, Psychology* ; Motor Neurons*

Kennedy's disease is an adult onset form of motor neuron disease characterized by progressive proximal and bulbar muscle weakness. The authors report the anaesthetic management of a 43-year-old man with Kennedy's disease who underwent elective orthopaedic surgery under spinal anaesthesia. The anaesthetic implications of this X-linked lower motor neuron disorder are discussed, and guidelines for safe anaesthetic management are suggested.
Adult ; Humans ; Motor Neuron Disease ; Motor Neurons ; Muscle Weakness

No abstract available.
Motor Neurons* ; Urinary Bladder, Neurogenic* ; Urodynamics*

Small cortical strokes can produce predominant isolated weakness in a particular group of fingers: radial or ulnar. The traditional views are of point-to-point representations of each finger to neurons located in the precentral gyrus of the motor cortex such that the neurons of the radial fingers are located laterally and those of the ulnar fingers are located medially. We present a case of isolated weakness of middle, ring, and little fingers due to a small cortical infarction in the medial precentral gyrus.
Fingers* ; Infarction* ; Motor Cortex ; Neurons ; Stroke

Animals ; Mice ; Motor Neurons/physiology* ; Spinal Cord

The purpose of this study was to investigate any relationship between the geometric factors of synaptic contacts of muscle spindle afferent terminals and masseteric motor neurons in the trigeminal motor nucleus. Terminals from the masseteric muscle spindle afferents were stained with intra-axonal injection of HRP and were examined electronmi-croscopically with serial sections at the central and peripheral regions of trigeminal motor nucleus of the cat. The number of terminals examined were 76 in peripheral and 105 in central region. The results obtained were as follows. 1. Most of the labeled terminals showed simple synaptic connectivity. Each terminals in peripheral and central region made synaptic contact with 1 to 5 neuronal profiles. Two or three labeled terminals were occasionally seen to make synaptic contact with the same dendrite. 2. The average number of postsynaptic proximal dendrite per labeled terminal was higher in the central region than in the peripheral region. In contrast, that of postsynaptic distal dendrite per labeled terminal was higher in the peripheral region than in the central region. 3. The average diameter of postsynaptic dendrites in the central region was larger than that in the peripheral region. This imply terminals in the peripheral region contacted with further distal part of the distal dendrite than that in the central region. These results indicate that synaptic connectivity associated with the spindle afferents from masseteric muscle is different according to their geometric location within the trigeminal motor nucleus and suggest that there will be precise interrelationship between the morphology, pattern of synaptic connectivity and functions of muscle spindle afferents.
Animals ; Cats* ; Dendrites ; Motor Neurons ; Muscle Spindles* ; Neurons

OBJECTIVE: To study the changes of magnetic evoked potentials by thinking of simple motion without actual muscle action of that motion. METHOD: We use H-reflex to test the excitability of relevant pools of spinal motor neurons and Magnetic Evoked Potentials (MEPs) to study the core of brain motor activity. The H-reflex and MEPs were obtained in three different conditions. 1) non-facilitation (NF), that is, resting state without actual motion and without thinking of that motion. 2) volitional-faciliation (VF), with actual motion which is usual manner of facilitation of MEPs. 3) thinking-facilitation (TF), without actual motion but with imaginary thinking of that motion. We evaluate the thresholds, amplitudes and latencies of H-reflex and MEPs in each three condition. RESULTS: Comparing with the parameters in NF condition as a baseline, there were no significant changes in any parameters of H-reflex in TF condition, but there were significant changes in threshold and amplitude of H-reflex in VF. On the while there were significant changes both in VF and TF of MEPs. The amount of facilitation of MEPs were greater in VF than in TF; the amount threshold decrement, amplitude increment and latency decrement of MEPs were greater in VF than in TF. CONCLUSION: Thinking of simple motion without actual muscle action of that motion could facilitate the MEPs, and this facilitation is induced by increasing activity of brain motor cortex not by that of spinal cord level.
Brain ; Evoked Potentials* ; H-Reflex ; Motor Activity ; Motor Cortex ; Motor Neurons ; Spinal Cord ; Thinking*

Spasticity is a velocity-dependent increase in tonic stretch reflexes (muscle tone) with exaggerated tendon jerks, resulting from hyperexcitability of the stretch reflex. As one component of the upper motor neuron syndrome, spasticity remains a vexing problem for both clinicians and patients. Although several medications have been approved for clinical use in patients with spasticity, the literature has yielded no clear standard of care. The aims of this article are to review the mechanisms of spasticity, factors to consider when choosing and starting antispastic drugs in clinical settings, and the typical characteristics and effects of commonly used agents. This review will focus only on enteral medications, not neurolytic or intrathecal therapy.
Humans ; Motor Neurons ; Muscle Spasticity ; Reflex, Stretch ; Standard of Care ; Tendons

BACKGROUND: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the effects of mivacurium on onset and recovery were affected by the duration of more than 2 weeks after injury of the lower motor neuron in rabbits. METHODS: The animals were divided into five groups. The control group was without lower motor neuron injury. In the experimental groups, the lower motor neuron injury was made by denervating with a 75 - 80% lesion on the common peroneal nerve to the right anterior tibialis muscle. The experimental groups were subdivided as 1, 2, 3 and 4 week groups (named group 1 wk, 2, 3 and 4 wks) according to the duration of the denervation of the common peroneal nerve. The response relationship of mivacurium on the muscle twitches induced by TOF (train of four) stimulation (supramaximal stimulus of 0.2 ms duration, square-wave pulses, 2 Hz rate and 10 mA, repeated every 10 seconds) was studied in the anterior tibialis muscles and compared between all groups. Neuromuscular responses (onset, recovery time to T1(1), T1(25), T1(75), T1(95) and recovery index) of muscle twitches to intravenous mivacurium (0.18 mg/kg) were studied. After recording the muscle twitches, macroscopic findings were observed. RESULTS: The recovery time, T1(1) of group 4 wks was significantly longer than those of group 1, 2 and 3 wks (P < 0.05), but not different from the control group. The recovery time, T1(25), T1(75) and T1(95) of group 4 wks was significantly longer than those of all other groups (P < 0.05), but the onset times of all groups were not significantly different. The recovery index of group 4 wks was significantly higher than that of the control group (P < 0.05), but those of groups 1, 2 and 3 wks were not significantly different from that of the control group. The mass of the anterior tibialis muscle was significantly decreased at 4 weeks after the lower motor neuron injury (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Our results therefore suggest that the neuromuscular response to intravenous mivacurium on recovery in rabbits becomes prolonged according to the durations of the denervation and represents sensitivity at 4 weeks after the lower motor neuron injury.
Animals ; Denervation ; Motor Neurons* ; Muscles ; Peroneal Nerve ; Rabbits

Polaris, which is encoded by Tg737 gene, has been associated with cilia formation. Recently pheno-types of ventral neural tube in mice who have abnormal cilia formation have been reported to be similar with those of sonic hedgehog (Shh)signaling mutants. These interesting findings lead us to further examine the patterning of ventral neural tube in Tg737(oprk) mice. In this study, we found that motor neuron and V2 interneuron were preserved whereas P3 progenitor domain and floor plate were missing in Tg737(oprk) mutant. V2 and motor neurons in Tg737(oprk) were ventralized and ixed with each other. Nkx6.1 and Olig2 expressions were preserved and the Olig2 expression was ventralized in Tg737(oprk). These penotypes are quite similar with those in Shh(-/-); Gli3(-/-) or Gli2(-/-) ; Gli3(-/-) mutants, suggesting that the function of Polaris might be involved in Shh signaling.
Animals ; Cilia ; Hedgehogs ; Interneurons ; Mice ; Motor Neurons ; Neural Tube*