Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 14, 2026
Compensatory Limb Use and Behavioral Assessment of Motor Skill Learning Following Sensorimotor Cortex Injury in a Mouse Model of Ischemic Stroke
Published on: July 10, 2014
Effects of somatosensory stimulation on use-dependent plasticity in chronic stroke
Lumy Sawaki1, Carolyn W-H Wu, Alain Kaelin-Lang
1Human Cortical Physiology Section, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD, USA. lsawaki@wfubmc.edu
Background And Purpose:
There is a need to develop strategies to enhance the beneficial effects of motor training, including use-dependent plasticity (UDP), in neurorehabilitation. Peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) modulates motor cortical excitability in healthy humans and could influence training effects in stroke patients.
Methods:
We compared the ability of PNS applied to the (1) arm, (2) leg, and (3) idle time to influence training effects in the paretic hand in 7 chronic stroke patients. The end point measure was the magnitude of UDP.
Results:
UDP was more prominent with arm stimulation (increased by 22.8%) than with idle time (by 2.9%) or leg stimulation (by 6.4%).
Conclusions:
PNS applied to the paretic limb paired with motor training enhances training effects on cortical plasticity in stroke patients.
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