Figure 3.
Electrical stimulation improves all classes of forelimb paw placement errors. Rats make several types of errors while walking on a horizontal ladder (oversteps, understeps, or missed steps; see Materials and Methods), with the majority being oversteps. We compared the error rates at baseline, days 5–10, days 15–20, and days 25–30. A, Oversteps. The overall difference between the groups was highly significant (F = 12, p = 0.002, repeated-measures ANOVA). Post hoc testing revealed a significant difference at days 25–30 (p < 0.05, asterisk). B, C, The understeps (B) and missed steps (C) did not have significant differences overall with ANOVA testing, due to the small numbers of each of these error types. However, at days 25–30, oversteps were reduced by 53%, understeps by 80%, and misses by 39% compared with injury only, suggesting reduction of all error types with stimulation.