Table 4. Overview of behavioural tasks affected by stroke damage.

Overview of behavioural tasks affected by stroke damage. Behavioural tests are designed to uncover damage inflicted by stroke to specific brain regions, but can also uncover damage to areas undergoing secondary damage due to, for instance, Wallerian degeneration. Anatomical areas in italics reflect sites of secondary damage, whereas other regions are directly affected by middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAo). Degree of damage to these areas is, nevertheless, dependent on the duration and type of occlusion. Most of these tests can be used repeatedly and are fairly resistant to learning effects. A serial assessment on these tasks dramatically improves the statistical power to detect treatments effects. However, behavioural tasks with an asterix are difficult to adapt for serial measurement. For long-term assessments, it is also important to establish if a given behavioural test is resistant to spontaneous recovery. Often with time, brain plasticity and behavioural adaptations allow animals to perform at the level of controls. It is therefore crucial to include appropriate lesion-only controls that determine the persistence of a lesion effect. Sham-surgery controls are also needed for this.

Impairment	Damage	Test	References
Motor	Striatum	Rotameter	(Borlongan et al. 1998; Grabowski et al. 1993; Janowski et al. 2008; Mattsson et al. 1997; Modo et al. 2002; Modo et al. 2003)
	Striatum & Motor Cortex	Running Wheel/Rotarod	(Bouet et al. 2007; Gertz et al. 2006; Ishrat et al. 2009; Janowski et al. 2008; Kadam et al. 2009; Willing et al. 2002)
		Staircase Test	(Bouet et al. 2007; Freret et al. 2006; Grabowski et al. 1993; Grabowski et al. 1995; Machado et al. 2009)
		Footfault Test	(Badin et al. 2009; Modo et al. 2002; Modo et al. 2003)
		Forelimb Placing/Cylinder Test	(Borlongan et al. 1998; Freret et al. 2006; Hayase et al. 2009; Kadam et al. 2009; McGill et al. 2005; Tennant and Jones 2009)
		Ladder Rung Test	(Tennant and Jones 2009)
		Grip Strength Meter	(Ishrat et al. 2009)
		Suspension Test	(Borlongan et al. 1998; Brown et al. 2003; Mattsson et al. 1997)
		Rotating Pole	(Risedal et al. 1999; Zou et al. 2006)
		Beam Walk Test	(Brown et al. 2003; McGill et al. 2005; Michalski et al. 2009)
		von-Frey Hairs/Weight Bearing	(Lim et al. 2008)
		Gait Analysis	(Wang et al. 2008)
		Chimney Test	(Bouet et al. 2007)
	Motor Cortex	Skilled Forelimb	(Alaverdashvili and Whishaw 2008; Allred et al. 2008; Bax et al. 2008; Knieling et al. 2009; Tennant and Jones 2009)
Sensory	Sensorimotor Cortex	Bilateral Asymmetry Test	(Ashioti et al. 2009; Ashioti et al. 2007; Bouet et al. 2007; Freret et al. 2009; Freret et al. 2006; Holmberg et al. 2009; Modo et al. 2009; Modo et al. 2002; Modo et al. 2003; Roulston et al. 2008; Tennant and Jones 2009)
		Whisker Test	(De Ryck et al. 1992; Hurwitz et al. 1990; Pazos et al. 1995; Woodlee et al. 2005)
Cognition	Striatum/Frontal/ Cortex/ Hippocampus	Water Maze	(Borlongan et al. 2005; Hayase et al. 2009; Modo et al. 2002; Modo et al. 2003; Soderstrom et al. 2009)
		Working Memory	(Kadam et al. 2009)
		Passive Avoidance*	(Borlongan et al. 2005; Bouet et al. 2007; Gupta et al. 2002; Haelewyn et al. 2007; Romanova et al. 2006; Willing et al. 2002)
		T-maze	(Hurwitz et al. 1991)
Emotion	Amygdala	Open Field	(Babu and Ramanathan 2009; Kadam et al. 2009; Lyden et al. 1997)
		Elevated Plus Maze	(Gupta et al. 2002)
		Corner Test	(Bouet et al. 2007; Michalski et al. 2009)