Changes in brain function during recovery of stroke patients

Stroke is one of the most common causes of perma-

nent disability among the adult population of indus-

trialised countries. Each year as many as 15 million

people suffer a stroke; in Finland the number is about

15,000.

“New methods for mapping brain activity are giving

us a more complete picture of which different areas

of the brain are involved in controlling human move-

ment and how the functional networks change after

brain infarction,” says Research Professor Kiti Müller of the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health. “It is

also important to understand neural mechanism of

recovery from stroke”, she continues.

In the Mind and Body Programme, Helsinki University

Central Hospital (HUCH) and Aalto University are co-

operating with health care company Elekta to study

how patients recover from a stroke. Elekta develops

and manufactures MEG equipment used in brain im-

aging.

“Development of novel recording and analyzing tech-

niques and their application to clinical studies re-

Mind and Body is a SalWe programme that promotes close interaction between companies and basic and applied research groups. A project, as part of the programme, is studying changes in brain functioning during the recovery of stroke patients. Novel methods for treatment and rehabilitation are developed on the results achieved in the study.

www.salwe.fi

SalWe - Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation in Health and Well-being

quire state-of-the-art equipment and multidisciplinary

approach that are achieved in our collaboration

effort between HUCH, Aalto University and Elekta.

Department of Neurology of Helsinki University Cen-

tral Hospital is a world leader in treating acute stroke

and receives stroke victims from a wide area. We are

combining these two major elements in our research

project: top-class imaging skills and eminent clinical

experience,” says project leader Nina Forss, a neurolo-

gist who heads the clinical brain research at Aalto

University.

Tactile perception matters“We’ve been exploring the changes in sensory and

motor cortex functions in stroke patients recovering

from acute paralysis of one hand,” Nina Forss explains.

“In stroke, major effort is generally focused on retrain-

ing the motor cortex but, from the perspective of the

hand functions, sensory perception and its integration

to motor plans are at least as important as the recov-

ery of the motor cortex. Our research looks at how the

sensory nervous system recovers over time and how

this affects the regaining of normal hand function.”

Promising study results The programme has also explored the timing of correc-

tive measures. Its results indicate that all significant

changes in sensory and motor cortices take place in

the first four weeks after a stroke.

“We hope in the future to be able to use this meth-

odology to compare the usefulness of treatments. We

may even, one day, be able to extend the time window

of optimal brain plasticity, using drugs and other in-

terventions.”

Better rehab outcomes“Information on brain functions forms the basis for

the development of more personalized rehabilitation

models and tools. We are also seeking for new objec-

tive methods to monitor the effect of treatment on

brain physiology and e.g. cognitive functions that will

aid in adjusting rehabilitation programmes as recovery

advances,” Kiti Müller adds.

For some stroke patients, innovative rehabilitation

methods can help to restore the ability to work, par-

tially or completely depending on the severity of the

stroke and the demands of the job.

Fruitful research cooperationMüller believes that Finland’s Strategic Centres for

Science, Technology and Innovation have created a

framework that accelerates the transfer of research

findings into practical use.

“Projects of basic and applied research can be linked

together into a single functional entity. The commer-

cial partner is represented by R&D staff, generally

people with scientific training, who can see how the

research data can be applied practically via product

development. The researchers are exposed to business

realities and the companies learn directly what high-

quality scientific research requires. It’s an excellent

thing that Finland wants to invest in R&D based on

high-quality research.”

More information

Nina Forssassociate professorclinical neurologistHelsinki University Central Hospital, Department of Neurology Aalto University, Brain Research Unitnina@neuro.hut.fi

Kiti Müllerresearch professor“The brain at work” Research Programme leaderInstitute of Occupational Healthkiti.muller@ttl.fi+358 40 507 7432

SalWe - Strategic Centre for Science, Technology and Innovation in Health and Well-being