So get your doctor to create a stroke protocol for this right now. You do expect that protocol to be ready for your next stroke? Don't you?
http://www.biosciencetechnology.com/news/2013/02/stroke-damage-mice-overcome-training-rewires-brain-centers
Johns Hopkins researchers have
found that mice can recover from physically debilitating strokes that
damage the primary motor cortex, the region of the brain that controls
most movement in the body, if the rodents are quickly subjected to
physical conditioning that rapidly “rewires” a different part of the
brain to take over lost function.
Their research, featuring precise, intense and early treatment, and
tantalizing clues to the role of a specific brain area in stroke
recovery, is described online in the journal Stroke.
"Despite all of our approved therapies, stroke patients still have a
high likelihood of ending up with deficits," says study leader Steven R.
Zeiler, M.D., Ph.D., an assistant professor of neurology at the Johns
Hopkins University School of Medicine. "This research allows us the
opportunity to test meaningful training and pharmacological ways to
encourage recovery of function, and should impact the care of patients."
With improved acute care for stroke, more patients are surviving.
Still, as many as 60 percent are left with diminished use of an arm or
leg, and one-third need placement in a long-term care facility. The
economic cost of disability translates to more than $30 billion in
annual care.
For their study, the researchers first trained normal but hungry mice
to reach for and grab pellets of food in a precise way that avoided
spilling the pellets and gave them the pellets as a reward. The task was
difficult to master, the researchers say, but the mice reached maximum
accuracy after seven to nine training days.
Then the researchers created experimental small strokes that left the
mice with damage to the primary motor cortex. Predictably, the reaching
and grasping precision disappeared, but a week of retraining, begun
just 48 hours after the stroke, led the mice to again successfully
perform the task with a degree of precision comparable to before the
stroke.
Subsequent brain studies showed that although many nerve cells in the
primary motor cortex were permanently damaged by the stroke, a
different part of the brain called the medial premotor cortex adapted to
control reaching and grasping. Zeiler says the function of the medial
premotor cortex is not well-understood, but in this case it seemed to
take over the functions associated with the reach-and-grab task in his
experimental mice.
The researchers also report that otherwise healthy mice trained to
reach and grasp pellets did not lose this ability after experiencing a
stroke in the medial premotor cortex, which suggests that this part of
the brain typically plays no role in those activities, and the existence
of untapped levels of brain plasticity might be exploited to help human
stroke victims.
Zeiler says another key finding in his research team’s mouse model
was a reduction of the level of parvalbumin, a protein that marks the
identity and activity of inhibitory neurons that keep the brain’s
circuitry from overloading. With lower levels of parvalbumin in the
medial premotor cortex, it appears the "brakes" are essentially off,
allowing for the kind of activity required to reorganize and rewire the
brain to take on new functions - in this case the ability to reach and
grasp.
To prove that the learned functions had moved to the medial premotor
cortex in the mice, the researchers induced strokes there. Again, the
new skills were lost. And again, the mice could be retrained.
The research team’s next steps with their mouse model include
evaluating the effect of drugs and timing of physical rehab on long-term
recovery. The research could offer insight into whether humans should
receive earlier and more aggressive rehab.
"In people left with deficits after a stroke, we have been asking how
we can encourage the rest of the nervous system to adapt to allow true
recovery," Zeiler says. "This research begins to provide us some
answers."
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