New Study Finds Brain Function Continues Improving Well Into the 90s

 First of all your competent? doctor has to recover your 5 lost years of brain cognition due to your stroke! How about 100's, Mom at 97 still living alone at home.

New Study Finds Brain Function Continues Improving Well Into the 90s

Let’s Talk: Web-Based Chats Boost Brain Function in Older Adults

 What EXACT PROTOCOL does your competent? doctor have to boost your brain function post stroke? NONE? So, you don't have a functioning stroke doctor? Why are you seeing them? Find someone better! 

There is no way I could get my 95 year old Mom to work a smartphone without someone sitting next to her and guiding every key stroke.

Let’s Talk: Web-Based Chats Boost Brain Function in Older Adults

Summary: Internet-based conversations can significantly improve cognitive functions in socially isolated older adults. The trial, known as I-CONECT, involved 186 participants aged 75 and older who engaged in structured video chats four times weekly, which helped enhance memory and executive function, particularly among those with mild cognitive impairment.

Over the course of a year, these interactions not only increased cognitive scores but also improved emotional well-being and increased connectivity in brain regions associated with attention. The findings suggest that digital conversations can be a viable strategy to combat social isolation and its cognitive repercussions.

Key Facts:

1. Enhanced Cognitive Function: Participants in the I-CONECT trial who engaged in frequent digital conversations showed improvements in global cognitive test scores and language-based executive functions.
2. Improved Emotional Well-Being: Both the control and intervention groups experienced boosts in emotional health, indicating that regular social contact, even brief, can have positive effects.
3. Neurological Benefits: Brain imaging revealed increased connectivity within the dorsal attention network of the intervention group, highlighting the potential of conversational interactions to enhance brain function.

Source: Harvard

Just talking to other people can stimulate different brain functions among socially isolated older adults, even when the interactions are internet-based, according to a new clinical trial out of Massachusetts General Hospital.

The results are published in The Gerontologist.

“We initiated the first proof of concept behavioral intervention study in 2010, nearly a decade prior to the COVID-19 pandemic drawing attention to the detrimental effects of social isolation on our overall health,” explained lead author Hiroko H. Dodge, the principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health–funded trials.

Measures of emotional well-being improved in both control and intervention groups, suggesting that emotion can be boosted by brief weekly telephone calls while improving cognitive function requires frequent conversational engagement. Credit: Neuroscience News

The 186-participant phase 2 randomized trial, called I-CONECT, used the internet and webcams to allow for conversational interactions between trained interviewers and socially isolated individuals aged 75 years and older who had normal cognition or mild cognitive impairment.

Investigators rotated conversation partners assigned to each participant to enhance the novelty of the experience, provided user-friendly devices allowing participants without any internet/webcam experience to easily engage in video-based conversations, and encouraged conversations with standardized daily themes and picture prompts.

Thirty-minute conversations were conducted four times per week for six months and then twice per week for an additional six months. A control group of similar individuals did not participate in such conversations, but both the intervention and control groups received weekly 10-minute telephone check-ins.

After the initial six-month period, the intervention group had a higher global cognitive test score compared with the control group with a large effect size among those with mild cognitive impairment. Also, intervention group participants with normal cognition had scores indicating higher language-based executive function.

At the end of final six-month period, intervention group participants with mild cognitive impairment had test scores indicating better memory-related brain function than those in the control group.

Measures of emotional well-being improved in both control and intervention groups, suggesting that emotion can be boosted by brief weekly telephone calls while improving cognitive function requires frequent conversational engagement.

Also, brain imaging tests showed that the intervention group had increased connectivity within the dorsal attention network—a region important for the maintenance of visuospatial attention—relative to the control group, although this finding must be interpreted carefully because of the limited number of participants assessed due to COVID-19–related research restrictions.

Upon requests from former trial participants asking to continuously have conversations, Dodge and her colleagues have established a nonprofit organization, the I-CONNECT Foundation. The foundation has been providing social interactions to isolated older individuals in the community free of charge, using the same materials used in the trial.

“Our next goal is to extend these activities to reach more isolated individuals in need, as well as to delve into the biological mechanisms underlying the impact of social interactions on our brain functions,” said Dodge.

“Providing frequent stimulating conversational interactions via the internet could be an effective home-based dementia risk-reduction strategy against social isolation and cognitive decline.

“We plan to extend this therapy to geriatric outpatient populations, for which we are currently fundraising, and also examine its effectiveness for mild to moderate depressive symptoms.”

The team is also exploring the possibility of providing conversational interactions via chatbot — an artificial intelligence – trained robot that provides stimulating conversations as a cost-effective intervention. 

“We are aware that human contacts are critically important for our emotional well-being, but for cognitive stimulations, chatbots might work as effectively as humans, which we are currently investigating,” said Dodge, who serves as the director of Research Analytics at the recently inaugurated Interdisciplinary Brain Center at MGH and is a faculty member of the Harvard Medical School.

Funding: Funding was provided by the National Institute on Aging.

About this cognition and aging research news

Author: Tracy Hampton
Source: Harvard
Contact: Tracy Hampton – Harvard
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News

Original Research: Open access.
“Internet-Based Conversational Engagement Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial (I-CONECT) Among Socially Isolated Adults 75+ Years Old With Normal Cognition or Mild Cognitive Impairment: Topline Results” by Hiroko H. Dodge et al. The Gerontologist

Evaluating stroke rehabilitation using brain functional network and corticomuscular coupling

 FYI. I found this useless, describes a relationship but does nothing to explain what will make this better so stroke patients can recover.

What is Corticomuscular coupling?

The functional corticomuscular coupling (FCMC) between the motor cortex and the effector muscles is considered essential for effective movement control (2). Extensive studies have expounded that cortical oscillatory drives are coupled with muscle activation in several different frequency bands.

Evaluating stroke rehabilitation using brain functional network and corticomuscular coupling

Ting Wang

,

Chenghao Wang

,

Kai Chen

,

Donghui Yang

,

Xugang Xi

&

Wanzeng Kong

Received 24 Feb 2022, Accepted 30 Jun 2022, Accepted author version posted online: 11 Jul 2022, Published online: 14 Jul 2022

• Download citation
• https://doi.org/10.1080/00207454.2022.2099386
•   CrossMark

 

Abstract

Objective: Stroke is the leading cause of disability worldwide. Traditionally, doctors assess stroke rehabilitation assessment, which can be subjective. Therefore, an objective assessment method is required.

Methods: In this context, we investigated the changes in brain functional connectivity patterns and corticomuscular coupling in stroke patients during rehabilitation. In this study, electroencephalogram (EEG) and electromyogram (EMG) of stroke patients were collected synchronously at baseline(BL), two weeks after BL, and four weeks after BL. A brain functional network was established, and the corticomuscular coupling relationship was calculated using phase transfer entropy (PTE).

Results: We found that during the rehabilitation of stroke patients, the overall connection of the brain functional network was strengthened, and the network characteristic value increased. The average corticomuscular PTE appeared to first decrease and subsequently increase, and the PTE increase in the frontal lobe was significant.

Value: In this study, PTE was used for the first time to analyze the relationship between EEG signals in patients with hemiplegia. We believe that our findings contribute to evaluating the rehabilitation of stroke patients with hemiplegia.

A single dose of coconut oil has been proven to enhance your brain’s functions

Ask your doctor about this claim. You would hate to eat food without your doctors ok. I guess you will need to trace the references back to clinical trials yourself, unless your doctor has staff to do that.
http://newstarget.com/2016-03-01-a-single-dose-of-coconut-oil-has-been-proven-to-enhance-your-brains-functions.html

By: Tara Paras

Date: March 01, 2016

in: Clean foods & organics, Corporations, Culture & Society, Food, functional food, Health, Mainstream Media, Nutrition

After being vilified for years as a “heart attack oil,” coconut oil has now been acknowledged as a healthy addition to one’s diet.
Starting around the 1950s, defaming coconut oil and saturated fat was part of the creation of low- and no-fat foods, margarine and hydrogenated trans-fat-filled cooking and salad oils, which have recently been proven as actually detrimental to overall health.

The different types of triglycerides in fats

High-triglyceride blood readings are red flags for obesity, diabetes and heart health issues. Most dietary fats contain long-chain triglycerides (LCT), which are not easily metabolized and can be stored as fatty deposits in one’s body.
Long-chain triglycerides contain chains with 14 to 18 carbon atoms. Coconut oil, on the other hand, contains mostly medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) with shorter chains of 6 to 12 carbon atoms, which are easily metabolized by the liver to produce ketone bodies that can replace glucose as metabolic fuel.
As we age, the brain’s ability to metabolize glucose for energy decreases, especially for those who have a metabolic disorder or insulin resistance. But MCT-created ketones can be used as cellular fuel in the brain when glucose is not available.

Coconut oil proven to enhance cognitive ability

A 2004 study published in Neurobiology of Aging found that MCTs like those found in coconut oil improved cognitive function among older folks with memory problems and even Alzheimer’s disease.
Twenty test subjects were randomly fed an MCT treatment or placebos on different days. Some in the Alzheimer’s group demonstrated improved scoring on a special Alzheimer’s cognitive rating scale, and all of them demonstrated better paragraph recall shortly after taking each dose of MCTs. Take note: The improvements were seen as quickly as 90 minutes after ingestion of the MCT treatment.
Given the astonishing results generated by the study, why hasn’t it gotten the mainstream media coverage it so rightly deserves? Well, at that time, Big Pharma was trying to synthesize and patent a ketone-body-producing pharmaceutical for the Alzheimer’s disease market, the profits for which are projected to increase exponentially in the coming decades. Put two and two together, and you get the picture.

Personal story confirms the miracles of coconut oil

Around 2009–10, Dr. Mary Newport’s husband had deteriorated from Alzheimer’s so badly that he couldn’t draw a simple illustration of a clock or perform daily functions without being micromanaged.
Since the Alzheimer’s drug developed in 2004 was not effective, Dr. Newport tried to get him into a trial for a new Alzheimer’s drug. But he was so bad off that he didn’t qualify.
After discovering that this new drug was a synthetic version of MCTs for creating ketone bodies and improving brain function, she researched and realized that palm and coconut oils also contained MCTs.
After feeding her husband coconut oil, he started making an astonishing recovery from almost total dementia to being able to start and finish tasks and remember people and events.
Dr. Newport observed that only two doses were sufficient, while the pharmaceutical version required doses every three hours.
Come to think of it, if Dr. Newport had enrolled her husband into that 2009–10 Alzheimer’s drug trial, she could have lost him completely.
The drug trial at that time was halted early because of nine deaths among those taking higher doses.
Dr. Newport’s success with coconut oil just proves how much more effective natural remedies are over expensive and harmful pharmaceuticals. Cheap, effective and accessible to many — coconut oil, once deemed the “heart attack oil” years back, has definitely proven itself to be the go-to remedy for some of today’s most harmful diseases.
Sources used:
NaturalNews.com
NaturalNews.com
CSPInet.org
Science.NaturalNews.com
 

Exercise can significantly improve brain function after stroke

So fucking what? This has been known for years. Publish a public protocol so survivors, therapists and doctors know exactly what needs to be done. That will never occur because everyone assumes SOMEONE ELSE WILL SOLVE THE PROBLEM.
http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=172591&CultureCode=en
American Stroke Association Meeting Report – Session A14 – Abstract 96 - Structured physical activity training after a stroke effectively improves brain function.  Training that lasts as little as 12 weeks can be an effective treatment to limit cognitive decline following a stroke. Exercise can improve brain function in chronic stroke patients.
Structured exercise training can significantly improve brain function in stroke survivors, according to research presented at the American Stroke Association’s International Stroke Conference 2017.
Stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the United States, and the leading cause of long-term disability. Studies estimate that up to 85 percent of people who suffer a stroke will have cognitive impairments, including deficits in executive function, attention and working memory. Because there are no drugs to improve cognitive function, physical activity –  such as physical therapy, aerobic and strength training –  has become a low-cost intervention to treat cognitive deficits in stroke survivors.
In a meta-analysis of 13 intervention trials that included 735 participants, researchers analyzed the effects of various types of physical activity on cognitive function among stroke survivors. They found that structured physical activity training significantly improved cognitive deficits regardless of the length of the rehabilitation program (i.e., training longer than 3 months as well as from 1 to 3 months led to improvements in cognitive performance).
The researchers also found that cognitive abilities can be enhanced even when physical activity is introduced in the chronic stroke phase (beyond 3 months after a stroke).
“Physical activity is extremely helpful for stroke survivors for a number of reasons, and our findings suggest that this may also be a good strategy to promote cognitive recovery after stroke” said lead author Lauren E. Oberlin, a graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. “We found that a program as short as twelve weeks is effective at improving cognition, and even patients with chronic stroke can experience improvement in their cognition with an exercise intervention.”
The researchers analyzed general cognitive improvement, as well as improvement specific to areas of higher order cognition: executive function, attention and working memory. Exercise led to selective improvements on measures of attention and processing speed.
The researchers also examined if cognitive improvements depended on the type of physical activity patients engaged in. Previous studies on healthy aging and dementia populations have found that aerobic exercise by itself is enough to improve cognition, but the effects are increased when combined with an activity such as strength training. Consistent with this work, the authors found that combined strength and aerobic training programs yielded the largest cognitive gains.
“Integrating aerobic training into rehabilitation is very important, and for patients with mobility limitations, exercise can be modified so they can still experience increases in their fitness levels,” Oberlin said. “This has substantial effects on quality of life and functional improvement, and I think it's really important to integrate this into rehabilitative care and primary practice.”
Co-authors are Aashna M. Waiwood, Julie Bernhardt, Ph.D., Toby B. Cumming, Ph.D., Anna L. Marsland, Ph.D., and Kirk I. Erickson, Ph.D.
Author disclosures are on the abstract.
http://newsroom.heart.org/news/exercise-can-significantly-improve-brain-function-after-stroke?preview=35dc632ef33e907728a1d41466c93ea6
Full bibliographic informationAHA/ASA International Stroke Conference 2017
Session A14 – Abstract 96 -- Control #: 17-ISC-A-4241-AHA
Effects of Exercise on Post-Stroke Cognitive Function

Author Block
Lauren E Oberlin, Univ of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA; Julie Bernhardt, Toby B Cumming, The Florey Inst of Neuroscience and Mental Health, Melbourne, Australia; Anna L Marsland, Kirk I Erickson, Univ of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA

Marijuana found to improve brain function… as long as it’s not laced with pesticides!

I guess the takeaway from this is you are on your own and will have to grow your own. Order seeds from the Netherlands, set up a PO box and hope they are packed inconspicuously enough to make it through customs.

My 13 reasons for marijuana use post-stroke.  

But don't listen to me, I have absolutely no medical training.

http://newstarget.com/2016-02-01-marijuana-found-to-improve-brain-function-as-long-as-its-not-laced-with-pesticides.html
There are a host of benefits to be reaped from medicinal cannabis. However, like any manufactured drug, cannabis has its pros and cons, which should be weighed against each other relative to the context of a person’s situation. Among these is the fact that marijuana can reverse cognitive decline… as long as it’s not laced with toxic pesticides.
One of the most exciting and recent discoveries about cannabinoids are their ability to act as antioxidants in the brain. German researchers discovered that the brain’s cannabinoid system is capable of cleansing damaged brain cells while creating new ones.⁽¹⁾

Cannabinoids curb Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, Huntington’s disease and more!

The revelation was published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. The researchers found that natural marijuana, that is – marijuana devoid of pesticides – can help curb brain inflammation behind an onslaught of cognitive disorders, including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s disease and other big names in the land of malady.⁽¹⁾
“I’ve been trying to find a drug that will reduce brain inflammation and restore cognitive function in rats for over 25 years; cannabinoids are the first and only class of drugs that have ever been effective,” notes Gary Wenk, a professor of neuroscience, immunology and medical genetics at Ohio State University (OSU), who contributed to the study. “I think that the perception about this drug is changing and in the future people will be less fearful.”⁽¹⁾
Only a handful of states have legalized marijuana for recreational use. However, even in these states, hemp still faces the same challenges it did in the underground market. Just as users who purchase marijuana illegally can’t be sure whether their stash has been laced with drugs, users who purchase marijuana legally can’t be sure whether their stash has been laced with pesticides.⁽²⁾
The consensus among those who run the legal marijuana industry is that there hasn’t been enough studies that analyze which chemicals are best to grow, smoke or eat marijuana with.⁽²⁾
“We have an industry that’s been illegal for so many years that there’s no research,” observed Frank Conrad, director of the marijuana testing laboratory Colorado Green Lab. “There’s no guidelines. There’s nothing.”⁽²⁾

Lack of federal regulation enables growers to disregard pesticide laws

Furthermore, although state prohibition of weed has waned, the federal government continues to classify cannabis as an illicit drug, meaning, they have no interest in funding research about chemical use for marijuana crops.
“There is no federal agency that will recognize this as a legitimate crop,” said pesticide expert Whitney Cranshaw of Colorado State University. “Regulators just bury their heads, and as a result, pest-management information regarding this crop devolves to Internet chats and hearsay.”⁽²⁾
Since marijuana is a low priority at the federal level, it can take years for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to respond to state requests about which pesticides are approved for marijuana crops. As a result, it’s easy for marijuana growers to disregard rules that limit or ban certain pesticides.⁽²⁾
In Denver, for example, a chemical called Eagle 20 EW was found to be in weed circulating the market. Although the chemical, technically a fungicide, is approved for grapes and hopes, it’s banned for use on tobacco plants because it can become hazardous when heated.⁽²⁾
Oregon faced a similar hurdle in June after an investigation by The Oregonian unearthed residues surpassing legal limits for edible marijuana products. Other pesticides, which are linked to cancer, nerve damage and neural degeneration, were found as well. Since these pesticides are not state-regulated, their use is legal.^(2,3)
In summary, a strong case can be made for the medicinal benefits of cannabis. Nevertheless, studies that expound the benefits of marijuana use natural cannabis devoid of noxious chemicals. There is plenty of marijuana in circulation harboring pesticides unfit for human consumption today. Therefore, in reaping the benefits of medicinal cannabis, it’s important for users to remember that not all cannabis plants are created equal.

Commentary: Utility of EEG measures of brain function in patients with acute stroke

So what the hell does this tell us? Do we have any way to objectively identify exactly the dead and the penumbra area? Including exact white matter damage? Without that we can never map stroke protocols that fix such damage. 
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fnhum.2016.00621/full?utm_source=newsletter&

Brenton Hordacre^1,2*, Nigel C. Rogasch³ and Mitchell R. Goldsworthy^1,4

• ¹School of Medicine, The Robinson Research Institute, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia
• ²Department of Physiotherapy, Repatriation General Hospital, SA Health, Daw Park, SA, Australia
• ³Brain and Mental Health Laboratory, School of Psychological Sciences and Monash Biomedical Imaging, Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia
• ⁴Discipline of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA, Australia

A commentary on
Utility of EEG measures of brain function in patients with acute stroke

by Wu, J., Srinivasan, R., Quinlan, E. B., Solodkin, A., Small, S. L., and Cramer, S. C. (2016). J. Neurophysiol. 115, 2399–2405. doi: 10.1152/jn.00978.2015

Several imaging and neurophysiological assessments are used to characterize both neural injury and neural function after stroke. These measures can inform clinical practice, map longitudinal changes, and guide therapeutic interventions. Electroencephalography (EEG) is one technique that measures neural function and can provide detailed assessment of spontaneous and task-related cortical oscillatory function. Neural oscillations reflect synchronized activity of large populations of cortical neurons which are fundamental for network communication and information processing. Although not currently a routine clinical assessment following stroke, EEG is a sensitive measure of cortical function and subsequent neural changes resulting from brain insults such as cerebral ischemia, and therefore has potential for wider clinical use.

Recently, Wu et al. (2016) investigated the capacity of EEG to capture behavioral impairment shortly following stroke. Resting state EEG recordings were performed in 25 patients between 3 and 12 days post-stroke in complex acute clinical settings. Using partial least squares (PLS) regression analysis, it was reported that delta power from a subset of electrodes predicted 72% of variance in acute stroke impairment measured with the National Institute of Health Stroke Scale, while beta power predicted 73% of variance (leave-one-out cross-validated). EEG coherence, a marker of functional connectivity, did not predict acute stroke impairment. Further, investigation of the PLS models revealed higher delta power in two regions, one overlying the ipsilesional sensorimotor cortex and one over the contralesional frontoparietal cortex, were associated with greater impairment. Similarly, reduced beta power in two regions, one overlying the ipsilesional primary motor cortex (M1) and the other over the contralesional parietal cortex, correlated with greater impairment.

Wu et al. (2016) reported several interesting findings which provide unique insight to acute stroke neurophysiology. Here, we highlight those key findings and discuss their significance in advancing the field. First, the finding that abnormalities in spectral power, but not coherence, were related to acute post-stroke impairment is an interesting observation in light of recent findings in chronic stroke. Using a similar PLS approach, EEG recorded in chronic stroke survivors identified that beta frequency coherence between M1 and ipsilesional motor networks was a strong predictor of motor impairment and recovery of function (Wu et al., 2015). Why similar relationships were not observed in the acute post-stroke period is not clear. It may be that acute neural damage following an ischemic lesion causes rapid changes in synchronization of the local neural network, affecting functional output. As the motor network reorganizes across the sub-acute post-stroke period, different neural populations may be recruited in order to restore function, meaning the strength and flexibility of motor network connectivity would become an important marker of function and capacity for further recovery (Park et al., 2011). Nevertheless, these results suggest power is an early marker of stroke impairment, while the importance of connectivity may increase during sub-acute or chronic post-stroke periods.

An important application of EEG is the ability to investigate neural oscillations in specific frequency bands. Insight into the functional significance of different frequency oscillations may provide an additional source of neurophysiological information. For example, previous stroke studies suggest delta oscillations originate from the region of the obstructed cerebral artery, reflecting reduced regional cerebral blood flow (Finnigan et al., 2006; Finnigan and van Putten, 2013). Furthermore, restoration of cerebral blood flow following administration of a tissue plasminogen activator was associated with normalization of delta power within minutes (Finnigan et al., 2006). Wu et al. (2016) report a positive correlation between ipsilesional delta power and infarct volume which appears to support previous findings indicating a relationship between delta power and cerebral blood flow following ischemic stroke. However, the relationship between beta power and impairment may reflect the importance of beta oscillations to motor function. Beta oscillations are associated with motor preparation and output and have been recorded over motor network regions during movement (Wheaton et al., 2005). Furthermore, beta coherence in sensorimotor regions recorded at rest was found to be a strong predictor of motor learning (Wu et al., 2014). However, the relationships between abnormalities in beta power and impairment following stroke are unclear. It may be that reduced beta power and impairment are both driven by neuronal loss following ischemic stroke. Investigating causal relationships between power and impairment represents an important progression in determining the clinical utility of EEG and may direct further interventional studies to facilitate greater functional recovery following stroke. Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) has been shown to entrain neural oscillations in a frequency specific manner (Zaehle et al., 2010), resulting in subsequent behavioral change (Pollok et al., 2015). Similarly, biofeedback allows participants to control frequency specific neural rhythms and has been used to modulate spectral power (Mulholland, 1995). Following on from the findings of Wu et al. (2016), an important progression would be to employ these neuromodulatory techniques to determine if changing EEG power has an effect on motor recovery following stroke. Such studies may advance acute stroke care by informing novel interventional approaches capable of improving post-stroke brain function and reducing impairment. While speculative and requiring further investigation, if abnormalities in beta power are related to post-stroke impairment, beta frequency tACS or biofeedback could be used as interventional techniques to normalize beta power recorded over the ipsilesional M1 and contralesional parietal cortex. Such interventions may assist restitution of motor function and represent an important progression in stroke recovery.

Future studies investigating causal relationships between EEG measures and impairment should also consider approaches to improve the spatial specificity of scalp EEG. Volume conduction is a significant limitation for interpreting the anatomical location of neural oscillatory activity. Several analytical techniques can increase the spatial specificity of oscillatory power and connectivity analyses, such as using spatial filtering methods (e.g., Laplacian re-referencing or source localization; Nunez et al., 1997; Schoffelen and Gross, 2009) or measures of connectivity which are less sensitive to volume conduction than coherence (e.g., imaginary coherence or weighted phase lag index; Nolte et al., 2004; Vinck et al., 2011). However, the field is still advancing these methods, and thus, results need to be treated carefully.

In summary, Wu et al. (2016) report several interesting neurophysiological observations following acute stroke. To further advance this field of research, future studies should investigate causal relationships between neural function and impairment using techniques such as tACS and biofeedback. These approaches may help decipher the clinical utility of EEG and inform future interventional studies which may lead to improved clinical outcomes.