The balance and coordination training program was identical to that utilized in our previous study.10 The animals were required to traverse 5 different elevated obstacles per day; these obstacles included suspension bridges, rope bridges, and parallel bars (each 100 cm in length) and ended in a dark box. These obstacles required motor learning, balance, and coordination, and each rat from this group crossed the obstacles 25 times, which amounted to walking 2500 cm on each day of training. The difficulty of the tracks was increased as the training progressed such that the tracks eventually included obstacles that were more unstable and more challenging than those that the rats encountered in the first training week