Figure 1.

Defects of synaptic plasticity in the prefrontal cortex after focal ischemic stroke. (A-B) In the amygdala, stable fEPSPs were recorded for 6 min as a baseline, high frequency stimulation (HFS) induced an LTP-like response, but no significant differences were found between stroke mice and sham (sham: n = 8, stroke: n = 9). (C-D) In the PFC of sham mice, HFS initiated the LTP as displayed in the representative traces. In the comparison to sham animals, smaller LTPs were recorded in the PFC of mice at 8 weeks after stroke (C). At 50 min of the recording, the slope of fEPSP was significantly reduced in the PFC of stroke mice than sham controls (D). (E-F) Representative traces are pair-pulse response with a 40 ms interval in PFC. Stroke insult notably reduced the pair-pulse ratio of fEPSPs at 20 ms and 40 ms intervals (Sham: n = 8, Stroke: n = 9; *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01; Student’s t-test).