Spinal compensation of postural cerebral asymmetries

Unilateral ablation of the motor area in primates provokes contralateral hemiplegia and asymmetrical posture due to derangement of muscle tone. Such a phenomenon, however, fades away in approximately 35–55 days. Spinal cord transection at low thoracic levels or bilateral lumbo-sacral deafferentation induces reappearance of the acute symptoms in the forelimbs of well compensated animals following the previous cortical lesion. It seems reasonable that the spinal cord plays an important role in the peripheral compensation via afferent impulses.