Fig. 11.

Deficits in motor behavior. A) Performance on rotarod, as measured by latency to fall, was slightly poorer 1 day after blast than before blast whereas sham mice showed significant improvement over this same time frame. B) Sham mice performed better on rotarod the day after sham blast than they did before blast, but did not show consistent further improvement over the next 4 weeks. In contrast, the performance of the blasted mice on rotarod was similar to before blast for the first 2 weeks and then gradually improved. C) Rump-height as a mouse traverses a narrow horizontal beam serves as a measure of its ability to support its hindquarters. Blasted mice showed a small deficit at 1 day, and then improved gradually over the rest of the 4-week long testing period. D) Diagonal phase dispersion for mice walking on the Digigait treadmill at 30 cm/s was significantly greater at 2 days post-blast, as compared to before blast. Sham mice showed no significant changes. The change in phase dispersion from before blast to after blast was significantly different between the blasted mice and their sham littermates. E, F) The number of mice subjected to blast injury that were able to maintain their position on the treadmill at 2 different speeds, 30 cm/s (E) and 20 cm/s (F), decreased during the 4 week-long period after blast. Asterisks indicate statistically significant differences. *p < 0.05; **p < 0.005; ***p < 0.0005; ****p < 0.0000005. The color of the asterisks (red or blue) indicates statistically significant difference between specified post-blast testing session and before blast for blasted mice or for sham mice, respectively. Black asterisks mark statistically significant differences between blasted and sham mice at the indicated post-blast testing session. See Results for additional detail. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)