# Impact of post-stroke rehabilitation on neurophysiological dynamics

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · $752,627

## Abstract

SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The long-term goal of this project is to develop a novel mechanistic framework to understand how post-stroke
rehabilitative training modulates neural reorganization in sensorimotor brain regions, and whether such
reorganization is associated with recovery of motor function. In a non-human primate model of capsular stroke,
we will describe the time course of changes in task-related motor encoding and mesoscale cortico-cortical
connectivity that occur in sensorimotor brain regions, and the time course of these changes in relation to motor
recovery. These neurophysiological changes will be compared to those occurring in animals undergoing
intensive rehabilitation initiated in the sub-acute stage after injury. Post-stroke neural plasticity has been
demonstrated repeatedly in pre-clinical and clinical studies. Animal studies have provided key information
regarding the molecular mechanisms of synaptic plasticity, and focal cortical stroke models have demonstrated
that alterations in neuronal connectivity are correlated with functional recovery. However, most studies are cross-
sectional and cannot address the complex temporal relationships between neural plasticity and behavioral
recovery; conclusions about the impact of rehabilitation on recovery mechanisms, and ultimately on clinical
recovery, are largely correlative. As a result, it is currently unknown whether plasticity mechanisms demonstrated
in most clinical and preclinical studies are associated with the initiation of recovery processes or are the result
of behavioral recovery. Further, when longitudinal studies in clinical populations have been done, relationships
between plasticity and motor recovery have been equivocal, in part because fMRI-based approaches lack the
temporal specificity to resolve the intricate patterns of communication among brain regions that are essential for
normal sensorimotor function. Using chronic microelectrode arrays in a longitudinal experimental design, we will
address three specific aims that examine neural activity (extracellular spikes) simultaneously recorded from
multiple cortical sensorimotor areas and motor thalamus before and after capsular infarct. This will allow us to
examine how stroke-like injuries disrupt task-related motor encoding in somatosensory and motor cortical areas
using traditional dynamical structure models (Aim 1). Further, we will characterize the impact of capsular infarcts
on mesoscale effective connectivity using a novel neurophysiological approach that we recently developed (Aim
2). Finally, we will determine whether rehabilitative training procedures initiated in the sub-acute period after
neural injury influence recovery by modulating task-related activity, altering effective connectivity, or both (Aim
3). The novelty and potential impact of this project stems from the unique longitudinal design, providing us with
the ability to plot the precise temporal profile of local and networked changes to determine if a par...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10803729
- **Project number:** 1R01NS131466-01A1
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Randolph J. Nudo
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $752,627
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2024-04-17 → 2029-01-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10803729

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10803729, Impact of post-stroke rehabilitation on neurophysiological dynamics (1R01NS131466-01A1). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10803729. Licensed CC0.

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