Recovery of food-taking in cats after lesions of the corticospinal (complete) and rubrospinal (complete and incomplete) tracts.

The food-taking movement by which a cat grasps a morsel of food and brings it to the mouth is governed by interneurones in the forelimb segments (C6-Th1) and is normally controlled by the cortico- and rubrospinal tracts. It disappears reversibly when these tracts are transected in C5. The reappearance after some time is at least in part due to a reticulospinal take-over of the command. We have compared the recovery after total transection of both tracts with that after lesions giving subtotal transection of the rubrospinal tract but total transection of the corticospinal tract. With 4-6% of the rubrospinal fibres left, the recovery of food-taking was clearly faster than after total transection.