FIG. 4.

Applications of the whisker nuisance task. (A) At 4 weeks after mild fluid percussion injury (FPI; ∼1.1 atm), whisker nuisance scores are significantly different from sham animals (*p < 0.05 by Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA and Mann-Whitney U test), but not moderately-injured animals. (B) To minimize sensory stimulation post-injury, sham and moderate brain-injured rats' whiskers were shaved every 3–4 days until 22 days post-injury to allow whisker regrowth. The whisker nuisance scores for sham rats whose whiskers were shaved were increased (p = 0.10). For FPI rats, performance was unaffected. (C) Sham and moderate brain-injured rats were subjected repeatedly to the whisker nuisance task (15 min per day, three times per week) as a therapeutic intervention to alleviate post-traumatic morbidity. Whisker therapy may not mitigate post-traumatic morbidity. (D) Sham and moderate brain-injured rats were placed individually in an enriched environment allowing them to voluntarily stimulate their whiskers through tactile exploration for 45 min 3 days a week for 4 weeks. At 4 weeks, no significant change in whisker nuisance scores was observed. The sham and 4-week post-moderate FPI without therapeutic intervention data are copied from Figure 2 for comparison (all values are mean ± standard error of the mean).