Chronic Electrophysiological and Behavioral Response in Rats due to Cerebral Ischemic Stroke in the Motor Cortex

Abstract

This work is the beginning of a study investigating dynamic changes of electrophysiological and correlative behavioral response in rats before, during and after stroke in the motor cortex. The animals need training sessions to regularly perform the behavioral tests. The standard deviation of total paw touches in the cylinder test (n=4) and the time required to eat a single strand of pasta (n=3) decreased by a factor of 1.7 and 3.6 respectively after 5 days of training.  Behaviorally, post-stroke, average cylinder touches decreased by a factor of 5.6, and pasta adjustments increased by a factor of 3.6 suggesting impairments due to stroke. The pre-stroke mean neural firing rate was 94 spikes per second (spk/s), this increased to 146 spk/s during the 20 minute stroke induction, and was only 4 spk/s 20 min post-stroke. The firing rate has increased to near pre-stroke levels in the 2 nd  and 3 rd  days following stroke.