Evaluating Behavioral Outcomes from Ischemic Brain Injury

Brain injury resulting from cerebral ischemia is a significant clinical problem. Stroke (focal cerebral ischemia) is the third leading cause of death in the United States. In addition, approximately 500,000 people annually in the United States suffer brain injury after global brain ischemia consequent to cardiac arrest and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Despite intensive research over the past few decades, survival and neurological outcome for both types of ischemic injury remain poor. Therefore, the need for therapies to protect the brain during ischemic episodes and to enhance its potential for plasticity and repair after ischemia remains paramount. This chapter discusses behavioral techniques and considerations that are vital to brain injury studies of experimental stroke or cardiac arrest. Testing protocols are focused on the mouse, as this species is readily amenable to genetic alteration and so has rapidly become the dominant species employed in most laboratories.