Researchers have recently used a custom hand exercise robotic machine and fMRI brain imaging to help chronic stroke patients restore some functioning. The robotic machine was used for doing several rehabilitation exercises. The doctors monitored the changes in the fMRI as the patients regained some of their previous functioning. This is basically using the brain’s neuroplastic mechanisms to restore some previous functioning. Here is the press release.
CHICAGO — Research scientists using a novel, hand-operated robotic device and functional MRI (fMRI) have found that chronic stroke patients can be rehabilitated, according to a study presented today at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA). This is the first study using fMRI to map the brain in order to track stroke rehabilitation.
“We have shown that the brain has the ability to regain function through rehabilitative exercises following a stroke,” said A. Aria Tzika, Ph.D., director of the NMR Surgical Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Shriners Burn Institute and assistant professor in the Department of Surgery at Harvard Medical School in Boston. “We have learned that the brain is malleable, even six months or more after a stroke, which is a longer period of time than previously thought.”
Post-stroke rehabilitation is nothing new and has already been reported by researchers in the past. See here and also here and here. So this is not the first time that fMRI has been used to track progress among stroke patients and the press release may be wrong. It has also been known for some time that the brain’s neuroplasticity allows for improved functioning that can be quite long lasting. However, this may be the first use of a robotic device such as the one used.
Figure 16. This fMRI image illustrates the area in the brain that corresponds with hand use of a patient before training (left), after eight weeks of training (middle), and one month after training was completed (right) at a 60percent effort level.
In the future researchers may use real time brain imaging to shape the brain among those who are brain injured. It would allow real-time feedback. A person would be able to look at their own brain scan and attempt to change their own brain waves by themselves. It could potentially shape the brain for beneficial effect among those who currently have poor functioning as a result of brain injuries.
