Study: Post-Stroke Brain Can Reorganize
A U.S. study suggests the area of the brain that processes visual inputs can reorganize after an injury caused by stroke.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers studying a stroke patient discovered a brain region that had stopped receiving signals from the patient’s eyes because of the stroke began responding to signals formerly processed in adjacent brain areas.
The researchers said their finding demonstrates plasticity — the ability of an adult brain area to change its functioning. While the research will not lead immediately to treatments, they said it might eventually play a role in designing new therapies to aid recovering stroke victims.
The study by Daniel Dilks and colleagues at MIT is reported in The Journal of Neuroscience.