Effect of early motor training on visual and sensomotor cortical evoked potentials in rats.

Abstract

1. Motor training of rats for 3–6 months on a treadmill, starting at the age of 1 month, leads to a statistically significant increase in functional activity of neuron populations in the visual cortex as reflected in latent periods of primary responses and excitability recovery cycles of responses to paired stimulation. 2. The significance of functional changes taking place after motor training is at a higher level for the duration of excitability recovery cycles than for latent periods of PR. 3. Comparison of the effects of locomotor training in the visual and sensomotor cortex shows that the above-mentioned functional changes are manifested to a greater degree in neuron populations of the visual than of the sensomotor cortex. Differences in the modulating influences of training are greater when expressed in absolute (msec) than in relative (%) terms.