Fig. 1.

Experimental timeline. The research design consisted of an initial one-week period of habituation upon arrival of the animal. Rats then underwent chronic restraint stress for 2.5 h daily for 13 consecutive days. Animals were randomly allocated to 3 groups: active animals received 10 min of 10 Hz LI-rTMS three times daily (1 h apart, five days a week for two weeks), sham animals received a sham version of the stimulation protocol and depression control animals received no stimulation or extra handling. Faecal samples were collected at baseline (before the start of CRS), after the end of the 13 days of CRS (Post-CRS), after the end of the treatment period (Post-rTMS) and two weeks after the end of the treatment period (Follow-up).