The olivo-cerebellar system. The effect of interolivary lesions on muscle tone in the trunk and limb girdles

✍ Scribed by Robert B. King

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1948
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 959 KB
• Volume: 89
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0021-9967
• DOI: 10.1002/cne.900890304

✦ Synopsis

While producing lesions at the origins of the cerebellar afferents to determine how each system ends in the cerebellam it mas found that lesions of the interolivary region in young rabbits resulted in a striking, immediate and characteristic loss of muscle tone in the trunk and limb girdles. Olivary and interolivary areas mere studied further comparing patterns of motor deficit which resulted from small lesions. The aggregate of these constituted an overlapping series. When the lesions were aiialyzed histologically it became evident that this loss of muscle tone was related to the olivo-cerebellar system and not to the long sensory and motor tracts that pass over, between and under the inferior olives.

The expression "loss of antigravity tonus" (King, '48, preliminary communication) has been dropped from descriptions of the niuscle tone pattern which is established by an interolivary lesion. Sherringtonian "antigravity tonus" (decerebrate rigidity, 1897) includes specific groups of muscles > I am greatly indebted to Dr. James L. O'Leary, for his constant encourage ment and guidance. The accumulation of critical illustrations as the problem progressed mas made possible through the generous cooperation of Mr.