Longitudinal imaging of motor-evoked cortical activity before and after stroke

We recorded time series of calcium activity of cortical pyramidal neurons with wide-field fluorescence microscope. Increase in GCaMP6f fluorescence was indicative of an increase in neuronal activity. The mice were head restrained during the recording session. The field of view of the microscope allows to record cortical activity in the right hemisphere and in a portion of the left one while the mouse is performing a passive extension-active retraction of the left forelimb in a robotic device. The forces applied and the position of the forelimb are also recorded simultaneously. The experiments are divided in two parts: robot and control group. The robot group, consisting of 5 mice (GCaMP22, GCaMP23, GCaMP24, GCaMP25, GCaMP26), performed 4-5 days of motor training on robotic platform in healthy conditions (pre-stroke) and 20 days of motor rehabilitation starting 5 days after stroke (post-stroke). The control group, consisting of 3 mice (GCaMP27, GCaMP28, GCaMP29), performed 20 days of motor training in healthy condition.