Transcranial direct current stimulation combined with amantadine in repetitive mild traumatic brain injury in rats

Table 3 Calculated differences (post-treatment values minus post-mTBI (pre-treatment) values; △) between pre-treatment (post-mTBI) and post-treatment evaluations

	Control	Amantadine	tDCS	Combination
△Duration on rotarod^b(sec)	2.20 ± 8.43^d	30.75 ± 20.34	47.55 ± 8.89^a	48.15 ± 12.25^a
△Maximal speed on rotarod^b(rpm)	− 0.20 ± 1.05^d	4.60 ± 2.75	6.80 ± 1.08^a	6.60 ± 1.81^a
△Object ratio^b (%)	− 13.18 ± 20.28^c	52.58 ± 21.29^a	29.64 ± 22.28	99.58 ± 23.13^a,^d
△MEP latency(ms)	0.15 ± 0.41	0.37 ± 0.27	− 0.24 ± 0.26	− 0.29 ± 0.23
△MEP amplitude^b(μV)	− 22.60 ± 17.72^d	13.30 ± 15.69^d	83.60 ± 41.30^a,^c	22.90 ± 9.54^d

In rotarod test, the combination and tDCS groups showed significantly longer △duration on rotarod and significantly faster △maximal speed on rotarod than the control group. In novel object test, combination group showed significantly greater increase of △object ratio than the control and tDCS groups. In MEP study, the tDCS group showed a significantly greater increase of △MEP amplitude compared to the other groups. mTBI mild traumatic brain injury, tDCS transcranial direct current stimulation, MEP motor-evoked potential. Results represent mean value ± standard error of mean
^a ≤ 0.05 significant difference compared with the control group by MannWhitney test
^b ≤ 0.05 significant difference among the four groups by Kruskal-Wallis test
^C ≤ 0.05 significant difference compared with the amantadine group by MannWhitney test
^d ≤ 0.05 significant difference compared with the tDCS group by Mann–Whitney test

ISSN: 1471-2202