We described previously a sequence of cortical activity changes after the unilateral stroke in the whiskers somatosensory representation – the barrel fi eld (BF). We aimed to check if this activity remodeling is linked to the restitution of the whiskers sensory function. To characterize poststroke defi cits and time related recovery we performed the gap-crossing test for a group of rats 3, 28 and 56 days after the photothrombotic stroke (DPS) in the BF. Rats learned to cross the gap between elevated platforms in darkness, using only sensory information from whiskers. We examined the minimum distances at which rats failed to cross (min) and the maximal distances (max) crossed by the rats in two scenarios at each time point: (1) with all their whiskers and (2) only with unilateral whiskers corresponding to the destroyed BF (contralateral to the stroke). Before the stroke there were no signifi cant differences in min and in max distances when rats used all versus unilateral whiskers. At 3DPS the max was lower when rats used whiskers with destroyed sensory representation. The fi rst fall was made by rats at shorter distances when they used just the impaired side whiskers. At 56DPS all the differences between crossing performance disappeared. At this time point, we previously found new activity foci in the spared somatosensory cortex of the injured hemisphere, specifi c for the whiskers stimulation – probably a new functional representation of the whiskers.
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