Research Area
Aging

Grant Type
Network

Year
2006

Abstract

Stroke is an age-related disease and the leading cause of adult disability. The incidence of stroke increases with age, and the level of recovery declines with age. There is spontaneous recovery after stroke, and recent studies indicate that the brain is capable of a limited degree of repair. The goal of this project is to determine how the brain recovers lost function in stroke. The research program focuses on the site of the most substantial recovery, the brain tissue adjacent to the stroke site. These studies first determine how brain cells remodel to form new connections and how these areas of new connections form new brain maps for control of movement and sensation. The grant then determines the molecular systems that produce cell remodeling and remapping of brain function after stroke, and how behavioral activity, such as occurs in neurorehabilitation, influences cell structure and remapping of brain function. The final studies then use these molecular systems or behavioral activity patterns as targets, and test the effect of manipulating them to promote better recovery.