Figure 3. Repeated treatment with a‐tsDCS leads to changes in locomotion patterns.

A, general set‐up of the DigiGait system. Locomotion was tested at two speeds: 10 cm s⁻¹ and 20 cm s⁻¹. A typical recording is shown at the top right, with corresponding rising slope, peak paw area and falling slope data labelled. The bottom recordings represent the stance phases from representative animals from each group. B, non‐injured control animals were evaluated twice with a 2 week interval between testing. The grey bars represent left hindlimb (LHL) data and the blue bars represent right hindlimb (RHL) data. E1 and E2: see Methods and Figure 1. The non‐injured control animals exhibited no difference in paw area, rising slope or falling slope between E1 and E2 for either limb. C, sham‐treated animals with SCI exhibited significant change in paw area. LHL paw area significantly increased during E1–E3 at slow speed. At the faster speed, paw area for the LHL significantly decreased during E1–E3. Rising slope significantly decreased during E1 at the slow speed for the LHL. At the faster speed, falling slope significantly decreased during E1–E3 for the LHL. D, a‐tsDCS‐treated animals exhibited significant changes in paw area. Paw area significantly increased during E1–E3 at the slow speed for the LHL, whereas this only occurred during E1 and E2 for the RHL. Paw area significantly increased during E1 at the faster speed for both the LHL and the RHL. Rising slope significantly increased at the slow speed during E1 and E2 for the RHL. Rising slope significantly increased during E1 at the faster speed only for the RHL. Falling slope significantly increased during E1 and E2 at the slow speed for the LHL and the RHL. Falling slope significantly increased during E1 at the faster speed only for the RHL. E, c‐tsDCS‐treated animals exhibited significant changes in paw area. Paw area significantly increased during E1 at the slow speed compared to baseline. Falling slope significantly increased during E1 and E2 for the LHL, and only during E1 for the RHL. ^* P < 0.05, Holm–Sidak method. Data are presented as the mean ± SEM. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]