Impaired Proprioceptive Perception After Stroke: A Functional MRI Study

So after this research someone needs to come up with  a hypothesis as to what would bring back proprioception.  Isn't that the next step  after basic research like this?
https://www.dcconferences.com.au/wcnr2012/pdf/WCNR_poster_abstracts.pdf

POSTER 36
ABSTRACT 280
IMPAIRED PROPRIOCEPTIVE PERCEPTION AFTER
STROKE: A FUNCTIONAL MRI STUDY
Ben-Shabat E1,2, Brodtmann A1,
Matyas TA1,2, Carey LM1,2
1National Stroke Research Institute, Florey Neuroscience Institutes,
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
2La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
Background: Proprioception may be affected following stroke with or
without motor deficits. Proprioceptive deficits are associated with
poorer functional recovery probably due to the essential role proprioception
plays in motor control, particularly for movement precision of
the upper limbs. We aimed to characterize patterns of brain activation in
individual stroke survivors with proprioceptive impairment relative to
healthy controls.
Method: One ambidextrous and two right-handed participants with first
chronic stroke were recruited (46, 65, 45 years). Participants demonstrated
proprioceptive deficits on the Wrist Position Sense Test. Exclusion
criteria included visuospatial neglect, and increased tone above 1􀀎 on
the Modified Ashworth Scale. Participants underwent quantitative behavioral
testing and a functional MRI during an event-related proprioceptive
experimental design. Each proprioceptive event of passive wrist movement
(affected wrist) was followed by a motor response event of mirror
copying or not copying the passive movement with the other wrist.
Results: Anatomical scans revealed that the common lesion site for stroke
participants was the posterior thalamus. The main deviation in the brain
activation patterns of stroke participants relative to healthy participants
was reduced activation in the right supramarginal gyrus (SMG). Laterality
index calculations showed that right SMG activation was most reduced for
the stroke participants with the most sever proprioceptive impairment.
Conclusion: These case studies illustrated that both anatomical integrity
of the posterior thalamus and functional activation of the right SMG are
important for proprioceptive perception after chronic strokes. These findings
are consistent with those we have found in healthy participants, in
whom the right SMG was shown to have a key role in proprioceptive
perception regardless of the stimulated hand. Our results support he
importance of the right SMG role in spatial perception of body segments.