Development of a novel gripping test for the evaluation of the finger fine motor ability in MPTP-treated monkeys

• Published in: Journal of integrative neuroscience Vol. 19; no. 2; pp. 209 - 215
• Main Authors: Kobayashi, Susumu, Asakawa, Tetsuya, Nozaki, Takao, Sugiyama, Kenji, Sameshima, Tetsuro, Kurozumi, Kazuhiko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England IMR Press 30.06.2020
• Subjects: Animals; Antiparkinson Agents - administration & dosage; Antiparkinson Agents - pharmacology; Behavior, Animal - drug effects; Behavior, Animal - physiology; Deep Brain Stimulation; Disease Models, Animal; Fingers - physiopathology; Levodopa - administration & dosage; Levodopa - pharmacology; Macaca fascicularis; Male; Motor Activity - drug effects; Motor Activity - physiology; Motor Skills - drug effects; Motor Skills - physiology; MPTP Poisoning - physiopathology; MPTP Poisoning - therapy; Neuropsychological Tests - standards; Parkinson Disease - drug therapy; Parkinson Disease - physiopathology; Parkinson Disease - therapy; parkinson's disease|levodopa|deep brain stimulation|behavioral test|finger fine motor skill|gross motor skill; Reproducibility of Results; Subthalamic Nucleus; Parkinson's disease; behavioral test; finger fine motor skill; levodopa; gross motor skill; deep brain stimulation
• ISSN: 0219-6352; 1757-448X
• DOI: 10.31083/j.jin.2020.02.158

Assessing the finger fine motor ability is extremely important. However, conventional behavioral tests in monkeys are complicated and costly. We attempted to develop a new task to assess the precise finger grip in Parkinson's disease monkeys based on the principles of objectification, multipurpose, and simplification. This study involved seven adult male cynomolgus monkeys. A gripping test based on the previous food reaching test was developed. Parallel experiments of food reaching test and gripping test affected by the treatments of levodopa and deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus were performed to verify the utility of the gripping test. We found that gross motor ability (measured by food reaching test) could be significantly improved by both the subthalamic nucleus and levodopa administration, which reproduced the results of our previous study. The finger fine motor ability (measured by the gripping test) could be significantly improved by levodopa administration, but not by the subthalamic nucleus. Our results verified the utility and reliability of the gripping test, which is a simple, convenient, and objective task for evaluating the finger fine motor skill in Parkinson's disease monkeys. Mechanisms of the efficacy of deep brain stimulation on fine motor ability require further investigation.