Cognitive and behavioral assessment in experimental stroke research: will it prove useful?

Stroke in humans is associated with deficits in sensorimotor and cognitive function. Consequently, many stroke researchers recently have expanded thei r techniques to assess cognitive and behavioral correlates of histologicall y-determined stroke damage in animal models. Although the incorporation of functional outcome assessment represents an important step forward in strok e research, reports of middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) induced beha vioral deficits often conflict, and a significant correlation between post- stroke histology and behavior has been reported in few stroke studies. Disc repancies in behavioral outcomes among studies may be due to several factor s, such as method of MCAO, duration of occlusion, strain, the timing and me thod of the behavioral testing and the laboratory environment. Furthermore, proper experimental and control groups, necessary to rule out potential co nfounding factors during cognitive testing, often are not incorporated. The goal of this review is: (1) to provide a description of the techniques mos t commonly employed to assess functional outcome after (MCAO) in rodents an d (2) to identify potential confounding factors that may interfere with a c lear interpretation of the behavioral data. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.