Article: Dean - Nerve Stimulation Plus Standard Therapy May Accelerate Stroke Recovery

Dean's Stroke Musing

This is already being used to treat depression and epilepsy. Definition here<<: Get our researchers on it for stroke for acute vs. chronic. -- Dean's Stroke Musing.

http://news.bioscholar.com/2012/07/nerve-stimulation-plus-standard-therapy-may-accelerate-stroke-recovery.html

UT Dallas researchers recently demonstrated how nerve stimulation paired with specific experiences, such as movements or sounds, can reorganize the brain and improve its function.

This technology could lead to new treatments for stroke, tinnitus, autism and other disorders.

A team led by Dr. Robert Rennaker and Dr. Michael Kilgard looked at whether repeatedly pairing vagus nerve stimulation with a specific movement would change neural activity within the laboratory rats’ primary motor cortex. To test the hypothesis, they paired the vagus nerve stimulation with movements of the forelimb in two groups of rats.

After five days of stimulation and movement pairing, the researchers examined the brain activity in response to the stimulation. The rats who received the training along with the stimulation displayed large changes in the organization of the brain’s movement control system. The animals receiving identical motor training without stimulation pairing did not exhibit any brain changes, or plasticity.

People who suffer strokes ...

See the full article Nerve Stimulation Plus Standard Therapy May Accelerate Stroke Recovery
                         in Dean's Stroke Musing.