Recovery of Locomotor Function After Experimental Stroke Correlated with Enhanced Neuronal Integrity After Amphetamine Treatment

Hua-Shan Liu¹, Hui Shen¹, Hanbing Lu¹, Yun Wang¹, Yihong Yang¹

In the present study, we investigated whether the increase of fractional anisotropy in perilesional areas after amphetamine treatment would predict behavioral improvement in an elevated body swing test that has been reliably used to assess neurological behaviors in rats with ischemia stroke. We demonstrated a correspondence between the temporal changes of fractional anisotropy in perilesional areas and locomotor function in stroke rats treated with amphetamine, suggesting that the structural integrity may be used as an imaging biomarker to predict locomotor function recovery.