Effect of rehabilitative training on post-infarct cortical plasticity in rats

2014 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25560257
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: MITANI Akira 京都大学, 医学(系)研究科(研究院), 教授 (50200043)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2015-03-31
• Keywords: リハビリテーション / 可塑性 / 脳梗塞 / 機能回復 / 脳内微小電気刺激 / マルチユニット

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Functional changes induced in the rat contralesional motor cortex following training of affected forelimb were investigated using intracortical microstimulation and multi-unit recording. Rats had completed the reaching training and were divided into three groups: training, non-training and sham. The training and non-training groups were subjected to photothrombosis on the unilateral motor cortex to affect trained forelimb, and the training group was forced to use their affected hand by reaching. In the training group, the reaching success score was significantly higher than that in the non-training group, substantial enlargements of ipsilateral affected hand representation were induced in the contralesional motor cortex, and the firing rate of the contralesional motor cortex significantly increased during reaching movement. These results suggest that neuronal reorganization in the contralesional motor cortex is accelerated by training of the affected hand.

Free Research Field

リハビリテーション神経科学