In the absence of visual information, our brain is able to recognize the actions of others by representing their sounds as a motor event. Previous studies have provided evidence for a somatotopic activation of the listener's motor cortex during perception of the sound of highly familiar motor acts. The present experiments studied (a) how the motor system is activated by action-related sounds th...

BACKGROUND Distributed brain networks are known to be involved in facilitating behavioral improvement after stroke, yet few, if any, studies have investigated the relationship between improved touch sensation after stroke and changes in functional brain connectivity. OBJECTIVE We aimed to identify how recovery of somatosensory function in the first 6 months after stroke was associated with fu...

A patient with right sided brain damage suffered contralesional neglect, inferior quadrantanopia (with 0 degrees sparing in the left eye and 13 degrees sparing in the right), and a visual field restriction (to 15 degrees ) in the upper contralesional quadrant of the left eye. In binocular vision, the patient showed underestimation of the horizontal size of contralesional line segments unless cu...

Motor extinction refers to a deficit of motor production on the side opposite a brain lesion that either only becomes apparent or disproportionately worsens during bilateral motor activity. It may arise due either to a contralesional deficit in setting the motor activation level (an intentional deficit) or a deficit in contralesional awareness of the sensory consequences of movement (an attenti...

OBJECTIVES Neuroplastic changes that drive recovery of shoulder/elbow function after stroke have been poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between neuroplastic brain changes related to shoulder/elbow movement control in response to treatment and recovery of arm motor function in chronic stroke survivors. METHODS Twenty-three chronic stroke survivors w...

OBJECTIVE Motor recovery after stroke depends on the integrity of ipsilesional motor circuits and interactions between the ipsilesional and contralesional hemispheres. In this sham-controlled randomized trial, we investigated whether noninvasive modulation of regional excitability of bilateral motor cortices in combination with physical and occupational therapy improves motor outcome after stro...

Cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR), known as an epithelial Cl− channel, is increasingly noted to be expressed in the nervous system, although whether and how it plays a role neuronal excitability unclear. Given association of CFTR with fertility, we tested here possible involvement regulating hypothalamic neuron excitability. Patch-clamp Ca2+ imaging showed that pharmaco...

The current study investigated the contributions of contralesional primary somatosensory cortex (S1c) to motor learning deficits post-stroke. For three days, continuous theta burst (cTBS) was delivered over the contralesional hemisphere prior to practicing a serial targeting task. cTBS was delivered over either S1c, contralesional primary motor cortex (M1c) or as control stimulation (n=4/group)...