Some effects of commissurotomy on the reinstatement and potentiation of lesion deficits

Abstract

Two experiments investigated in rats the effects of cutting the corpus callosum after recovery from unilateral cortical lesions that produce transient symptoms of neglect and circling. Side of lesion was also examined. In Expt. I, 60 rats received left or right lesions of parietal, medial frontal, or motor cortex. After one month of testing for visual, auditory and somatosensory responsiveness and for circling, the callosum was cut, and the sequence of measures was repeated. Callosotomy reinstated neglect after recovery from the lesions in the parietal and medial frontal groups, more severely and consistently in the frontal group. Side of lesion made no difference. Circling was predominantly ipsiversive after the cortical lesions, due entirely to the frontal group. Callosum section markedly potentiated contraversive circling in the left parietal group; right parietal animals showed no preference. This was the only hemisphere difference found. Circling remained ipsiversive in medial frontal animals after callosotomy. These circling biases did not diminish in the postcallosotomy period. Expt. II replicated the circling procedures with 58 animals that were given the same unilateral cortical lesions or were unoperated controls. Callosotomy was performed one month postlesion. Again, left parietal animals circled contraversively, and there was no bias in the right parietal group. A left-right difference was also evident in the motor cortex group, left lesions producing contraversive turning. We confirm the reinstatement of neglect from frontal lesions by callosum section previously found in the monkey and show that it also occurs with parietal lesions. While neglect symptoms do not differ after left or right lesions, circling does: left parietal lesions plus callosotomy produce a marked contraversive tendency that may reflect an elemental spatial lateralization.