Figure 4.

Skilled forelimb reaching task analysis. (A) Sequential frames of the skilled forelimb reaching task performed by an adult rat grasping a sugar pellet. (B) Success scores for reaching task (out of 20 reaches) across time. No difference between groups at baseline. Marked deficits in successfully obtaining pellets with the stroke-impaired limb were apparent 3 days post-op (before treatment) with no significant difference between groups. Rats receiving electrical stimulation showed significant overall improvement of the skilled forelimb reaching test when compared to stroke only and stroke with sham stimulation (two way repeated-measure ANOVA, main effect time p < 0.0001, main effect treatment p < 0.0001, interaction p < 0.001). Weekly comparison showed that animals receiving electrical stimulation exhibited significant improvement in the success scores than the Stroke only group (#p < 0.05 at week 3, 4, and 5, ##p < 0.01 at week 6, ###p < 0.001 at week 7 and week 8) and Stroke/No e-stim group (**p < 0.01 at week 6 and 8, ***p < 0.001 at week 7) and the improvement persisted until the end of the study. There was no difference between two control groups at any time point (Tukey's post hoc analysis, error bars indicates ±SEM).