Aging limits cortical network recovery after stroke in mice
In 3-month-old and 18-month-old mice with experimental stroke, aged animals failed to regain somatomotor functional connectivity and behavioral performance.
Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism
In mice, researchers used wide-field calcium imaging to examine cortical network dynamics and behavioral recovery following stroke. They induced a focal photothrombotic stroke in the forepaw somatosensory cortex of 3-month-old and 18-month-old Thy1-GCaMP6f mice. Both age groups developed significant somatomotor deficits after the injury. However, only young mice showed substantial behavioral recovery. Young mice also showed superior baseline measures of hemispheric stimulus-locked fidelity, bilateral coherence, and cortical entrainment, which declined significantly after stroke, a trend absent in aged mice. Furthermore, only young mice significantly recovered somatosensory and somatomotor functional connectivity. Temporal circuit dynamics were comparable between young and aged mice both before and after stroke.
Why it matters
These results suggest shared patterns of neuronal network degradation between aging and stroke. They also point to a network-level basis for long-term functional deficits in older stroke patients.
Caveats
The findings are limited to an experimental photothrombotic stroke model in mice and require verification in human clinical settings.
The paper
Washington University in St. Louis
Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism · 2 Oct 2026