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. 2021 Jun 25;12:3972. doi: 10.1038/s41467-021-24211-8

Fig. 6. Forced use therapy after stroke increases the reliability of sensory-evoked responses of neurons in peri-infarct cortex.

Fig. 6

a Analysis pipeline. Top: neuronal responses to 20 sequential whisker deflections at 10 Hz were aligned to the onset of the stimulus epoch (gray shading) to generate a mean stimulus-evoked trace per cell. Bottom: individual trials (thin lines) and mean trace (thick line). Peak amplitudes for every stimulus were calculated from individual calcium transients (top), while the area-under-the-curve (AUC) was calculated from the mean stimulus-evoked trace (bottom). b Mean stimulus-evoked response at baseline for all stimulus-locked neurons in control (black) vs. forced use whisker-plucked (red) mice, comparing neurons located in the C1 barrel (C1—solid lines; n = 121 neurons from 8 control mice and 145 neurons from 10 plucked mice) to those in surround barrels (SB—dashed lines; n = 128 and 146 neurons from the same mice, respectively). Same n applies for c. c Quantification of the AUC from mean stimulus-evoked responses for all stimulus-locked neurons at baseline. Control group in gray, whisker-plucked group in red. Each dot represents one neuron, horizontal black lines show group medians, and black rectangles show 25–75th percentiles. Kruskal–Wallis test with Tukey-Kramer correction for multiple comparisons, **p < 0.01. d Mean stimulus-evoked response from all cells in peri-infarct regions from control (black) or plucked (red) mice over time following stroke. Number of cells (n)/number of mice (N) for control and plucked groups: baseline—128/8 and 146/10; day 5—89/8 and 84/10; day 13—165/8 and 110/9; 1 month—148/8 and 155/10; 2 months—128/8 and 119/8. Same n applies to e. e Quantification of the AUC from the mean stimulus-evoked responses from control or plucked mice shown in d. LME model, ANOVA for fixed effects of group (G, p = 0.646), timepoint (T, ##p = 0.007), and group-by-timepoint interaction (G:T, **p = 0.003). Significance for individual coefficients for timepoint (T) or group-by-timepoint interaction (G:T), corrected using Benjamini and Hochberg’s (B & H) method, are indicated over corresponding data points (*p < 0.05; ##p < 0.01). Data in e–g represent mean ± s.e.m. f Quantification of peak amplitude of stimulus-evoked responses in stimulus-locked neurons over time following stroke, in control vs. plucked (red) groups. Number of cells (n)/number of mice (N) for control and plucked groups: baseline—119/8 and 135/10; day 5—85/8 and 75/10; day 13—152/8 and 104/9; 1 month—135/8 and 146/10; 2 months—123/8 and 112/8. LME model, ANOVA for fixed effects of group (G, $$p = 0.003), timepoint (T, ##p = 0.002) and group-by-timepoint interaction (G:T, ***p < 0.001). Significance for individual coefficients for timepoint (T) or group-by-timepoint interaction (G:T), corrected using B & H method, are indicated over corresponding data points (* or #p < 0.05). g Quantification of the percentage of whisker stimuli that stimulus-locked neurons respond to over time following stroke, in control vs. plucked groups. n/N for control and plucked groups: baseline—128/8 and 146/10; day 5—89/8 and 84/10; day 13—165/8 and 110/9; 1 month—148/8 and 155/10; 2 months—128/8 and 119/8. GLME binomial model, ANOVA for fixed effects of group (G, p = 0.054), timepoint (T, ###p < 0.001) and group-by-timepoint interaction (G:T, ***p < 0.001). Significance for individual coefficients for timepoint (T) or group-by-timepoint interaction (G:T), corrected using B & H method, are indicated over corresponding data points (*** or ###p < 0.001).