Article

Stroke is the leading cause of long-term disability. Understanding how people
recover from stroke and other brain lesions remain one of the biggest conundrums
in neuroscience. As a result, concerted efforts in recent years have focused on
investigating the neurophysiological changes that occur in the brain after
stroke, and in developing novel strategies to enhance motor recovery. In
particular, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a non-invasive tool that
has been used to investigate the brain plasticity changes resulting from stroke
and as a therapeutic modality to safely improve motor function. In this review,
we discuss the contributions of TMS to understand how different motor areas, such
as the ipsilesional hemisphere, secondary motor areas, and contralesional
hemisphere are involved in motor recovery. We also consider recent studies using
repetitive TMS (rTMS) in stroke patients to enhance upper extremity function.
Although further studies are needed, these investigations provide an important
starting point to understand the stimulation parameters and patient
characteristics that may influence the optimal response to non-invasive brain
stimulation. Future directions of rTMS are discussed in the context of
post-stroke motor recovery.

Langue : ANGLAIS