Induced sensorimotor cortex plasticity remediates chronic treatment-resistant visual neglect.

ABSTRACT: Right brain injury causes visual neglect - lost awareness of left space. During prism adaptation therapy, patients adapt to a rightward optical shift by recalibrating right arm movements leftward. This can improve left neglect, but the benefit of a single session is transient (~1 day). Here we show that tonic disinhibition of left motor cortex during prism adaptation enhances consolidation, stabilizing both sensorimotor and cognitive prism after-effects. In three longitudinal patient case series, just 20 min of combined stimulation/adaptation caused persistent cognitive after-effects (neglect improvement) that lasted throughout follow-up (18-46 days). Moreover, adaptation without stimulation was ineffective. Thus stimulation reversed treatment resistance in chronic visual neglect. These fi

SUBMITTER: O'Shea J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5595432 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature