Remodeling the Brain Plastic Structural Brain Changes Produced by Different Motor Therapies After Stroke
Remodeling the Brain Plastic Structural Brain Changes Produced by Different Motor Therapies After Stroke Lynne V. Gauthier, MA; Edward Taub, PhD; Christi Perkins, BS; Magdalene Ortmann; Victor W. Mark, MD; Gitendra Uswatte, PhD Department of Psychology (L.V.G., E.T. C.P., M.O., G.U.), Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (V.W.M.), and Department of Physical Therapy (G.U.), University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Ala. Stroke . 2008;39:1520-1525. Background and Purpose —Studies on adult stroke patients have demonstrated functional changes in cortical excitability, metabolic rate, or blood flow after motor therapy, measures that can fluctuate rapidly over time. This study evaluated whether evidence could also be found for structural brain changes during an efficacious rehabilitation program. Methods —Chronic stroke patients were randomly assigned to receive either constraint-induced movement therapy (n 16) or a comparison ...