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Biomedical subjects

D N Levine

Publications and source records attributed to D N Levine.

42 records · Page 3Linked to original sources
PubMed1978

Inaccurate reaching associated with a superior parietal lobe tumor.

A man with a tumor in the right superior parietal lobule had difficulty reaching for visualized objects. There were no significant deficits in visual sensation, visual attention, somatosensory function, elementary motility, praxis, or visuospatial performance. If allowed to visually fixate the target before reaching, he misreached only with his left arm and only when he was not allowed to observe the reaching limb. If he was required to maintain central visual fixation while reaching into his peripheral visual fields, his left arm misreached into both visual hemifields but his right arm misreached only into the left visual hemifield. These results demonstrate abnormalities, referable to both the contralateral arm and the contralateral visual field, that can neither be reduced to elementary disturbances of visual or somatosensory function nor to an elementary disturbance of motility. This pattern of misreaching has not been previously reported in human subjects or in experimental animals, but this may be attributable to differences of methodology. The misreaching observed in this patient may correspond to loss of posterior parietal neurons serving a supramodal integrative function.

Aged↗
PubMed1974

Motor units in cat soleus muscle: physiological, histochemical and morphological characteristics.

1. Physiological properties of motor units in the soleus muscle were studied in anaesthetized cats using intracellular stimulation of motoneurones to ensure functional isolation of single units. The muscle fibres belonging to 6 units were identified by glycogen depletion following prolonged stimulation, permitting analysis of their histochemical profiles and anatomical organization.2. The studied units in soleus were all classed as type S and were extremely resistant to fatigue during prolonged stimulation. Twitch contraction times ranged from 64 to 131 msec (mean 97.1 msec) and tetanic tensions ranged from 3.5 to 36 g (mean 10.5 g). Most units exhibited depression of twitch tension in the wake of a short high-frequency tetanus and few of the units showed any significant degree of post-tetanic twitch potentiation.3. Muscle fibres belonging to single soleus motor units were found to be scattered through territorial volumes occupying a large fraction of the total muscle volume. The available data suggest that different soleus motoneurones may innervate from less than 50 to more than 400 muscle fibres, with an average innervation ratio between 140 and 190 muscle fibres per unit.4. The results were compared with observations on type S motor units in the synergist gastrocnemius, obtained under similar conditions. The evidence suggests that soleus units are not equivalent to the type S units of the mixed gastrocnemius but rather constitute a unique population.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗
PubMed1973

Physiological types and histochemical profiles in motor units of the cat gastrocnemius.

1. A variety of physiological properties of single motor units have been studied in the gastrocnemius muscle (primarily in the medial head) of pentobarbitone-anaesthetized cats. Intracellular stimulation of individual motoneurones ensured functional isolation of the muscle units innervated by them.2. A system for muscle unit classification was developed using a combination of two physiological properties. Almost all of the units studied could be classified into one of three major types, including two groups with relatively short twitch contraction times (types FF and FR, which were differentiable from one another on the basis of sensitivity to fatigue) and one group with relatively long contraction times (type S, which were extremely resistant to fatigue and were differentiable from FF and FR units on the basis of the shape of unfused tetani). Post-tetanic potentiation of twitch responses was observed in all three muscle unit types. The distributions of axonal conduction velocities for motoneurones innervating FF and FR muscle units were essentially the same, while conduction velocities for motoneurones innervating type S units were, in general, slower.3. Histochemical profiles of muscle units representative of each of the physiological classes present in the gastrocnemius pool were determined using a method of glycogen depletion for muscle unit identification. Each of the physiological categories of muscle units exhibited a corresponding unique set of muscle fibre staining reactions, or histochemical profile. Within each physiological type, all of the units examined had the same histochemical profile. The results generally support the hypothesis that the histochemical characteristics of muscle fibres are meaningfully related to the physiological properties of the same fibres. However, certain limitations in the detailed application of the hypothesis were also apparent.4. Systematic assessment of the histochemical profiles of relatively large numbers of fibres belonging to single muscle units provided strong support for the hypothesis that all of the muscle fibres innervated by a single alpha-motoneurone are histochemically identical.

Action Potentials↗
PubMed1971

Mammalian motor units: physiological-histochemical correlation in three types in cat gastrocnemius.

The correlation among a variety of physiological properties and the histochemical characteristics of muscle fibers belonging to single motor units in a mixed mammalian muscle is directly demonstrated. The population of motor units making up the cat gastrocnemius was classified into three nonoverlapping groups on the basis of a combination of physiological parameters. The muscle fibers belonging to motor units of each physiological type exhibited a distinctive histochemical profile, such that the three basic histochemical "fiber types" exactly matched the three physiologically defined groups. Within each individual motor unit, the muscle fibers were histochemically uniform.

Adenosine Triphosphatases↗