Most patients show improvement in the weeks or months after a stroke. Recovery is incomplete, however, leaving most with significant impairment and disability. Because the brain does not grow back to an appreciable extent, this recovery occurs on the basis of change in function of surviving tissues. Brain mapping studies have characterized a number of processes and principles relevant to recovery from stroke in humans. The findings have potential application to improving therapeutics that aim to restore function after stroke.
⁎Departments of Neurology and Anatomy and Neurobiology, University of California, Irvine, California 92868
†School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation, Dokuz Eylul University, Izmir, Turkey
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Steven C. Cramer, M.D., UCI Medical Center, 101 The City Drive South, Building 53 Room 203, Orange, CA 92868-4280.
ABSTRACT