Aug. 31, 2009 A Japanese research group has found that after a
cerebral stroke in one side of a mouse brain, another side of
the brain rewires its neural circuits to recuperate from damaged
neural function. The research group, led by Professor Junichi
Nabekura of the National Institute for Physiological Sciences,
investigated how neural circuits rearrange themselves after
cerebral strokes by using two-photon laser microscopy in vivo.
In one to two weeks after strokes in the right side of the moue
brain, the left side of the brain rearranged its neural circuits
actively. After three to four weeks, the left side of the brain
started to receive sensory information from the left leg that is
usually received by the right side of the brain. The researchers
concluded that the stroke in the right side of the brain
activated the rearrangement of the neural circuits in the left
side of the brain, and then these rearrangements helped to
recuperate from stroke-induced damaged neural function. “We
found that the active re