Exercise and Environmental Enrichment as Enablers of Task-Specific Neuroplasticity and Stroke Recovery.

ABSTRACT: Improved stroke care has resulted in greater survival, but >50% of patients have chronic disabilities and 33% are institutionalized. While stroke rehabilitation is helpful, recovery is limited and the most significant gains occur in the first 2-3 months. Stroke triggers an early wave of gene and protein changes, many of which are potentially beneficial for recovery. It is likely that these molecular changes are what subserve spontaneous recovery. Two interventions, aerobic exercise and environmental enrichment, have pleiotropic actions that influence many of the same molecular changes associated with stroke injury and subsequent spontaneous recovery. Enrichment paradigms have been used for decades in adult and neonatal animal models of brain injury and are now being adapted for use in the

SUBMITTER: Livingston-Thomas J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4824016 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature