Submission to xPrize - stroke rehab

They create wonderful competitions, from tricorder to private space travel.
http://www.xprize.org/
My suggestion is:
15 million persons a year suffer a stroke, 10 million live with disabilities.  How exactly does neuroplasticity work? We know it works because we have seen from brain scans that heavily used areas of the brain expand to the surrounding areas.
The answer to this question could help millions recover.
How does a neuron signal to its neighbor that it needs help? And why would a neuron drop what it currently knows to take on new functionality? This should be fairly easy to figure out, you can use nanowires to listen in on single neurons or lay a grid across the cortex to listen in.
I see two possibilities, do you believe in good or evil neurons?
1. One neuron calls for help to neighboring neurons and they altruistically go to help.
2. One neuron sends out signals that wipe functionality from neighboring neurons and instructs them to copy the sending message.
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I sent the same request to the  Allen Institute for Brain Science with a negative reply.
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Thank you for your inquiry and for writing to us. While we don't sponsor
"X prize" like competitions, we appreciate hearing from people regarding
the issues of TBI, the more we hear the more relevant and pressing this
issue becomes.

The research we do at the Allen Institute is designed to accelerate
knowledge in the field of neuroplasticity which will in turn nurture the
field of TBI recovery.
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Dr. Norman Doidge hasn't answered my email either.
You can suggest your ideas here:
http://www.xprize.org/contact 

And if our stroke associations were anything like the Michael J. Fox Foundation we might be able to ask them to coordinate this type of stuff.
ARGHHH!!!