============================================================================================ CROSS-STUDY COMPARISON: current vs previous (Forouzan, _f) -- per-animal success RATE ============================================================================================ Metric: per-animal rate = sum(success)/sum(attempts). Rate is used because the current protocol runs ~2.7x more attempts/session, so raw counts are not comparable. Anodal = Box-B2 (contralateral tDCS); control = Box-A2 (ipsilateral sham) +/- Naive. Previous study: b2_f = Anodal, a2_f = Control (validated: b2_f reproduces the paper's positive tDCS x day interaction). "matched" = current days 0-3 vs previous full 0-9, equalising cumulative attempts (the previous study's whole span ~= current's first 3 days). arm current window nCur rate cumAtt prev rate cumAtt Welch p MWU p ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Control A2 0-9 3 0.422 1022 a2_f 0.333 384 0.158 0.101 Control A2 0-3 3 0.299 361 a2_f 0.333 384 0.480 0.536 Control A2+Naive 0-9 7 0.418 1012 a2_f 0.333 384 0.014 0.028 Control A2+Naive 0-3 7 0.264 294 a2_f 0.333 384 0.095 0.120 Anodal B2 0-9 3 0.537 1233 b2_f 0.406 427 0.024 0.070 Anodal B2 0-3 3 0.332 392 b2_f 0.406 427 0.073 0.101 INTERPRETATION - FULL range (0-9 both): current > previous for BOTH arms (control and anodal), e.g. B2 0.54 vs b2_f 0.41 (p=0.024); A2+Naive 0.42 vs a2_f 0.33 (p=0.014). - MATCHED effort (current 0-3 vs previous full): the gap disappears and slightly reverses -- B2 0.33 vs b2_f 0.41 (n.s.); A2 0.30 vs a2_f 0.33 (n.s.). => The current study's apparent superiority is a PRACTICE/ATTEMPTS artifact: its protocol packs ~2.7x more attempts/session, pushing every arm further along the learning curve by a given day. At equal effort the two cohorts perform the same. Note: A2+Naive 0-3 is slightly under-matched on attempts (294 vs ~384); A2-alone 0-3 (361 vs 384) is the cleaner apples-to-apples match.