Targeted brain stimulation aids stroke recovery in mice, scientists find
From: Stanford Report - 08/18/014
By: Bruce Goldman

Optogenetically stimulating mice’s brains five days after stroke improved the
animals' motor control and brain biochemistry.

When investigators at the Stanford University School of Medicine applied
light-driven stimulation to nerve cells in the brains of mice that had
suffered strokes several days earlier, the mice showed significantly greater
recovery in motor ability than mice that had experienced strokes but whose
brains weren’t stimulated.

These findings could help identify important brain circuits involved in
stroke recovery and usher in new clinical therapies for stroke, including the
placement of electrical brain-stimulating devices similar to those used for
treating Parkinson’s disease, chronic pain and epilepsy. The findings also
highlight the neuroscientific strides made possible by a powerful research
technique known as optogenetics.

Read the entire article at:
http://med.stanford.edu/news/all-news/2014/08/targeted-brain-stimulation-aids-stroke-recovery-in-mice--scienti.html

Links:
Gary Steinberg
https://med.stanford.edu/profiles/gary-steinberg

Stanford's Department of Neurosurgery
http://www.neurosurgery.stanford.edu/