Method of diagnosis and rehabilitation of decerebrate animals

УДК 619: 616-089
DOI 10.33861/2071-8020-2023-5-27-34

Albertin S.V.

Summary. The author suggested an innovative method has been developed for restoring genetically innate postural reflexes and coordinated movements of the head, torso and limbs in animals with traumatic injuries to various parts of the spinal cord and brain. Rehabilitation is carried out in stages, by performing motivated, targeted motor reactions, consistently changing the initial position (posture) of the animal. This became possible due to the fact that the device for implementing this method includes: a removable support tray with cutouts and a removable support base made with the possibility of vertical movement, a flexible head fixation rod, a pupilometer for recording oculomotor and pupillary reflexes, a manipulator in the form of a lever with adjustable a counterweight, and is also equipped with a reward dispenser, supplied in the form of liquid food, and a tube designed to restore the animal’s innate food-procuring movements performed by the forelimbs when extracting portions of food from the tube, served by the experimenter. The proposed testing and motor training procedures create optimal conditions for the rehabilitation of sensorimotor functions lost in decerebrate animals, while atraumatic immobilization of the animal provides the opportunity to conduct treatment sessions aimed at restoring the conductivity of the nerve pathways of the brain and spinal cord and improving the trophic properties of the nervous system through stereotactic, target-directed neurochemical and electrical stimulation of the sensorimotor cortex and supraspinal pathways of the brain, carried out under conditions of severe limitation of head mobility. In the device we propose, this condition is ensured by the design capabilities of the prefabricated rod-fixator for suspending the animal’s head, which allows, along with soft fixation of the animal’s head, rigid articulation of its component load-bearing elements.

Keywords: spinal injuries, animal immobilization, stress minimization, surgical treatment and rehabilitation, locomotor training, testing of sensorimotor reactions, functional state monitoring, restoration of genetically innate motor coordination.

References:

1. Albertin S. V. Golovoderzhatel [Head holder]. - 2005. - Patent RF No. 2255701.

2. Albertin S. V. Ustroystvo dlya khirurgicheskoy immobilizatsii zhivotnykh s travmaticheskimi povrezhdeniyami spinnogo mozga [Device for surgical immobilization of animals with traumatic spinal cord injuries]. - Veterinaria Kubani. - 2017 (5).

3. Albertin S. V. Ustroystvo dlya khirurgicheskoy immobiliatsii zhivotnykh s travmaticheskimi povrezhdeniyami spinnogo mozga [Device for surgical immobilization of animals with traumatic spinal cord injuries]. - Veterinaria Kubani. - 2018 (5). - pp. 17-22.

4. Musienko P. et al. Sposob issledovaniya podderzhaniya ravnovesiya u detserebrirovannykh zhivotnykh [Method for studying the maintenance of balance in decerebrate animals]. - 2009. - Patent RF No. 2393761.

5-23. Vide supra.

Author affiliation: Albertin Sergey V., senior scientific researcher of the Pavlov Institute of Physiology of the Russian Academy of Sciences; 6, emb. Makarova, Saint-Petersburg, 199034; phone: 8-906-2755103; e-mail: salber1@rambler.ru - responsible for correspondence with the editorial board.