Responders had to meet two pre-established criteria: (i) show statistically significant increases for detection performance of at least one additional selleck chemicals llc eccentricity at the end of the rTMS treatment (with regards to their performance at the end of the spontaneous recovery phase); and (ii) display significant performance improvements for the overall contralesional hemifield. If either one or both of these two criteria were not met then the subject was assigned to the Non-responder group. A repeated-measures anova was initially used to determine whether spontaneous
recovery or rTMS treatment yielded statistically significant ameliorations over the course of treatment for the active 10-Hz rTMS group. These analyses were done for performance levels (% correct detection) as a dependent variable, and follow-up phase (spontaneous recovery,
rTMS treatment, post-rTMS phase), visuospatial task (Static, Moving 2 tasks), and visual hemispace (ipsilesional, contralesional) as independent factors. The F-statistic from the repeated-measure anova is reported in the format Fdf factor, df error. We also conducted a-priori planned pair-wise comparisons using a Student’s t-test of the critical time points in the study (pre-lesion, post-lesion, pre-rTMS and post-rTMS). For lesion analysis, the percentage of spared cortex was determined with the above-mentioned calculation, and percentages of spared cortex were then averaged for each group. Repeated-measures anova was first conducted between groups using stereotaxic coordinates (A-P coordinates) selleck chemical as factors to determine whether significance in lesion size was present throughout the visual areas. Student’s t-tests ADP ribosylation factor were used to compare the total area of lesion between groups. Statistical significance was set to P < 0.05 for all parametric analyses used in this study. In accordance with prior studies, lesions targeting both banks of the feline right posterior parietal cortex (known as pMS) induced a complete contralesional visuospatial orienting deficit in all tasks. These deficits were present immediately after the lesion (only 24 h post-injury)
and started to improve spontaneously shortly thereafter. The basis of this improvement is likely to be a combination of network modulation vicariation (Rushmore et al., 2010) and reduction in acute effects such as inflammation, lesion-induced depolarization and cortical spreading depression events (see reviews by Cramer, 2008; Nudo, 2011). For the high-contrast moving task (Moving 1), subjects regained function in the contralesional visual hemispace within 5–10 days, and exhibited complete and stable recovery 30 days thereafter (Moving 1, 30 days post-injury 93 ± 4% vs. 98 ± 1% pre-lesion, P = 0.05; data not shown in figure form) which remained unaltered across the follow-up period. In contrast, recovery for static or laser-based moving targets (Day 70: Static pre-rTMS, 39 ± 7% vs. pre-lesion, 82 ± 3%; P = 0.