Fig. 2: Rehabilitative training recovers functional connectivity after stroke.

a Timeline of calcium imaging study. The green triangles indicate calcium imaging sessions. b Representative trace of calcium transient obtained from active (upper) and inactive (lower) neurons. c Active neuron number (time by group, F (4, 28) = 5.504, P = 0.0021). d calcium transient event frequency (time by group, F (4, 28) = 3.850, P = 0.0129), e functional connection number (time by group, F (4, 28) = 8.518, P = 0.0001). f connection density (time by group, F (4, 26) = 2.936, P = 0.0397). Mixed-effects model, **P < 0.01, ****P < 0.0001: Sham (n = 4) vs Stroke (n = 7), # P < 0.05, ## P < 0.01, ### P < 0.001: Sham vs Stroke + Rehab (n = 6), + P < 0.05, ++ P < 0.01: Stroke vs Stroke + Rehab, Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. Two-sided. Tukey’s HSD correction for multiple comparison. g Fractional distribution of connection probability in individual neurons. Red, blue, and black areas indicate the ranges where the fraction increases in stroke, stroke + rehab, and sham groups. Two-way ANOVA (F (26, 196) = 3.789, P < 0.0001), *P < 0.05, **P < 0.01, ***P < 0.001: Sham vs Stroke, # P < 0.05: Sham vs Stroke + Rehab, + P < 0.05, ++ P < 0.01: Stroke vs Stroke + Rehab, Tukey’s multiple comparisons test. (c–g) n = 4 (Sham), 7 (Stroke) or 6 (Stroke + Rehab). h Representative connection maps 28 days after the stroke. Scale bar, 100 μm. i Correlation between motor performance in the grid walking and the connection density. Pearson correlation (n = 49, r = 0.671, P < 0.0001). Two-sided. Data are presented as means ± sem. (a) Created in BioRender¹²⁷.