A, Experimental time line for surgical procedures and Rotarod testing. Non-Tg (n = 9) and TNFα-Tg (n = 7) rats were pre-screened on a Rotarod task and then randomly assigned to receive sham surgery or MCAO to induce cerebral ischemia. Rats were then tested again on the Rotarod at 1, 2, 4, 7, 11, 14, 18, 21, 25, and 18 days post-surgery. B, Mean ± SEM fall latency on the Rotarod prescreening test (i.e. prior to surgery). +p < 0.01. C, Multi-line plot shows mean ± SEM fall latency (FL) during post-surgery Rotarod testing (MCAO, high-lighted in red) or sham-surgery. Significant differences between mean fall latencies for ischemic and sham-operated TNFα-Tg rats (n = 4 and 3, respectively) were found on Days 4, 7, 14, 21, 25, and 28. For non-Tg littermates, significant differences between ischemic and sham-operated rats (n = 5 and 4, respectively) were observed only on Days 4, 7, and 28. *p ≤ 0.05; a = post hoc comparison between mean FLs of ischemic and sham-operated TNFα-Tg rats; b = post hoc comparison between mean FLs of ischemic and sham-operated non-Tg rats.