Spatiotemporal electrophysiology of cerebral ischemia observed using chronic electrode array in auditory cortex

Stroke research is of considerable societal value in an age in which the scourge is a leading cause of disability and the third-leading cause of death in the United States. While previous studies investigate the electrophysiology of stroke, none examine the long-term time-course of stroke recovery in the auditory cortex, the objective of this study. An electrode was implanted in the auditory cortex of two anesthetized Sprague-Dawley rats, stroke was induced in one of the subjects using photothrombosis, and daily electrical recordings were made while each subject was presented with a click stimulus every 500 ms. Peri-stimulus time histograms reveal that in the control subject, the second stimulus-evoked bursts peak decreased the day following implantation (Day 1) but returned almost to its Day 0 (day of surgery) value by Day 5, representing recovery from implantation trauma. The mean firing rate decreased logarithmically from its Day 0 value of 90 Hz to 10 Hz by Day 8, revealing decreasing electrode viability. In the stroke subject, the second stimulus-evoked bursts peak was undetected Day 1, but was detected again on Day 4, elucidating that the rat auditory cortex regains function as stroke recovery progresses.