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Updated: May 22, 2026
08:01
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
Neural correlates supporting sensory discrimination after left hemisphere stroke
Alexandra Borstad1, Petra Schmalbrock, Seongjin Choi
1School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, The Ohio State University, USA.
Brain Research
|May 18, 2012
Summary
Stroke survivors show impaired sensory discrimination. The precuneus and parietal cortex, along with the superior thalamic radiation (sSTR), are key to recovery, not just the primary somatosensory cortex.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Neurology
- Neuroimaging
Background:
- Impaired sensory discrimination affects nearly half of stroke patients.
- Neural substrates of post-stroke sensory function remain largely undescribed.
Purpose of the Study:
- Evaluate the primary somatosensory (S1) cortex role in post-stroke sensory discrimination.
- Determine the relationship between sensory discrimination and the superior thalamic radiation (sSTR) structural integrity.
Main Methods:
- fMRI during sensory discrimination tasks in 10 healthy adults and 10 stroke survivors.
- Diffusion tensor tractography to quantify sSTR fractional anisotropy and volume.
- Sensory discrimination testing in stroke participants.
Main Results:
- 60% of left-stroke participants had impaired sensory discrimination.
- Parietal cortex activation correlated with discrimination; precuneus showed different activation patterns in stroke patients.
- sSTR fractional anisotropy correlated with sensory discrimination ability.
Conclusions:
- Precuneus cortex and distributed parietal lobe activity support sensory discrimination post-stroke.
- Microstructure of the sSTR is crucial for sensory discrimination recovery.
- Primary somatosensory cortex (S1) is not the sole determinant of sensory recovery.
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