Brain rewires its circuits to recuperate from damaged neural function after stroke

Washington, August 22 (ANI): Researchers at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences (NIPS) in Japan have found in a study on mice that, upon cerebral stroke in one side of the brain, another side rewires its neural circuits to recuperate from damaged neural function.

The researchers used two-photon laser microscopy to study how neural circuits rearrange themselves after cerebral strokes.

They said that one to two weeks after strokes in the right side of the moue brain, the left side of the brain rearranged its neural circuits actively.

After three to four weeks, they added, the left side of the brain became to receive sensory information from the left leg, which is usually received by the right side of the brain.

The researchers said that those observations suggested that the stroke in the right side of the brain activated the rearrangement of the neural circuits in the left side of the brain, and then those rearrangements helped to recuperate from stroke-induced damaged neural function.

"We found that the active rearrangement of the neural circuits in the opposite side of the brain happens only in the specific period after strokes. Our findings can be applied to rehabilitative programs for stroke survivors," said lead researcher Professor Junichi Nabekura.

The study has been published in the Journal of Neuroscience. (ANI)