I bet your doctor won't create a stroke protocol based on this for at least 30 years. Don't do this on your own, you know how dangerous meditation is.
http://www.feelguide.com/2014/11/19/harvard-unveils-mri-study-proving-meditation-literally-rebuilds-the-brains-gray-matter-in-8-weeks/
Test subjects taking part in an 8-week program of mindfulness
meditation showed results that astonished even the most experienced
neuroscientists at Harvard University.
The study was led by a Harvard-affiliated team of researchers based at
Massachusetts General Hospital, and the team’s MRI scans documented for
the very first time in medical history how meditation produced massive
changes inside the brain’s gray matter. “Although the practice of
meditation is associated with a sense of peacefulness and physical
relaxation, practitioners have long claimed that meditation also
provides cognitive and psychological benefits that persist throughout
the day,” says study senior author Sara Lazar of the MGH Psychiatric Neuroimaging Research Program and a Harvard Medical School instructor
in psychology. “This study demonstrates that changes in brain structure
may underlie some of these reported improvements and that people are
not just feeling better because they are spending time relaxing.”
Sue McGreevey of MGH writes: “Previous studies from Lazar’s group and
others found structural differences between the brains of experienced
meditation practitioners and individuals with no history of meditation,
observing thickening of the cerebral cortex in areas associated with
attention and emotional integration. But those investigations could not
document that those differences were actually produced by meditation.”
Until now, that is. The participants spent an average of 27 minutes
per day practicing mindfulness exercises, and this is all it took to
stimulate a major increase in gray matter density in the hippocampus,
the part of the brain associated with self-awareness, compassion, and
introspection. McGreevey adds: “Participant-reported reductions in
stress also were correlated with decreased gray-matter density in the
amygdala, which is known to play an important role in anxiety and
stress. None of these changes were seen in the control group, indicating
that they had not resulted merely from the passage of time.”
“It is fascinating to see the brain’s plasticity and that, by
practicing meditation, we can play an active role in changing the brain
and can increase our well-being and quality of life,” says Britta
Hölzel, first author of the paper and a research fellow at MGH and
Giessen University in Germany. You can read more about the remarkable
study by visiting Harvard.edu.
Courtney L. PollockIntroduction
There is considerable evidence on the impairments that a
cerebral stroke will have down-stream of the stroke, i.e., in the spinal
motoneuron and the muscle. Motor impairment following stroke has been
documented as force production that is slow, weak, and lacking in
precision (Garland et al., 2009) and is associated with difficulty in fully activating the muscle (Klein et al., 2013).
Furthermore, in functional tasks such as standing balance and gait,
there is evidence of deficits in intra-limb coordination of muscles even
on the non-paretic side (Marigold and Eng, 2006; Raja et al., 2012).
In this opinion paper, we will first briefly review the changes
observed at the level of the motor unit (MU) after stroke and second
reflect upon whether some changes in the intrinsic properties of
motoneurons, typically considered to be maladaptive, might also reflect a
positive adaptation that could assist in force production. Lastly, this
paper will explore the control of MUs between limbs during standing
balance and suggest that, while some impairment may exist, there remains
the possibility of a preservation of fundamental motor control
strategies after stroke that might be a target for rehabilitation.
Motor Unit/Muscle Characteristics
At the level of the MU, studies have demonstrated a loss of spinal motoneurons following stroke (McComas et al., 1973; Hara et al., 2004; Lukacs, 2005; Li et al., 2011), particularly those that innervate type II MUs (Lukacs et al., 2008).
It has been suggested that chronically paretic muscle is made up of
fewer, but larger, MUs due to collateral sprouting of the remaining
motoneurons to innervate a greater number of muscle fibers (Lukacs, 2005; Kallenberg and Hermens, 2011; Li et al., 2011) and this process could result in a mismatch of muscle fiber type and motoneuron characteristics (Young and Mayer, 1982; Dattola et al., 1993).
Ultimately both of these changes may result in muscle contractions with
slower rates of force development and decreased levels of force
production (Garland et al., 2009).
Several pages between here at the link.
Concluding Remarks
There is no doubt that there are changes in the MU
discharge characteristics after stroke. But the AHP and common drive
data suggest that residual motor control strategies may remain after
stroke, albeit diminished, and may reveal a need to consider functional
task-dependency in future research to explore MU impairment and
adaptation post-stroke. It remains to be seen whether treatments that
challenge the neuromuscular system could prevent the muscle remodeling
and any compensatory MU control adaptations.
Dirk M. Hermann
