Modeling brain adaptation to focal damage

Determining how feature maps in the cerebral cortex adapt to sudden, focal damage is important for gaining a deeper understanding of neurological illnesses such as stroke. In this paper we describe a neural model of the region of primary sensory cortex related to upper extremity proprioception, and show how the feature map there reorganizes following a simulated lesion. A perilesion zone with decreased activity appears and then gradually expands with time. These results differ from those seen with previous models of cortical lesions, and offer an alternative mechanism to the "ischemic penumbra" seen in certain types of stroke.