Overgrowth and pruning of dendrites in adult rats recovering from neocortical damage.

Unilateral lesions to the forelimb representation (FL) area of the rat sensorimotor cortex caused a time-dependent increase in the dendritic arborization of layer V pyramidal neurons in the contralateral homotopic cortex. The increase in arborization was maximum at 2-3 weeks after the lesion, following which there was a partial reduction in dendritic branching. These neural morphological changes may be related to post-lesion behavioral changes in the use of the forelimbs.