A recent study from Simon Fraser University researchers reveals how damage to the thalamus, a brain region that regulates crucial functions, contributes to long-term disability after a stroke. Even though the thalamus itself wasn't directly damaged, researchers found it was affected months or years after a stroke, potentially leading to new therapies.
Simon Fraser UniversityDec 17 2024 A recent study from Simon Fraser University researchers has revealed how an overlooked type of indirect brain damage contributes to ongoing disability after a stroke.
Our findings suggest that indirect damage to the thalamus plays an important and under-explored role in the abnormal brain activity and long-term disability that often follow stroke. But unlike the brain tissue that dies due to direct damage from the stroke lesion, the thalamus appears to be disrupted but still somewhat intact, offering some hope that new treatments could promote recovery by restoring its function, or preventing its disruption in the first place.
For the study, researchers recorded the brain activity from 18 chronic stroke patients and used computer models to understand how this brain activity reflects abnormal thalamus function when compared to healthy individuals. Johnston explains that the thalamus communicates widely with the rest of the brain via many long connections, called axons, which makes it susceptible to indirect damage. When axons are injured by stroke in other regions of the brain, the damage can travel along the cell and damage neurons in the thalamus, causing its function to be impaired.
STROKE BRAIN DAMAGE THALAMUS DISABILITY RECOVERY
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