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New Research Promotes Recovery from Stroke [Full Text PDF]

Picture of Shawn Olson Shawn Olson : Jul 23, 2015

Stroke

Neurology is an emerging field marked by rapid changes and advances. Stroke teams are constantly trying new methods to reduce treatment times in order to prevent as many brain cells from dying as possible ... after all, two million brain cells die every minute when a patient is having a stroke.

But sometimes even the best teams under the perfect circumstances can find that their patient is struggling to recover from a stroke. That's why research like that described in a recent PNAS article, "Optogenetic neuronal stimulation promotes functional recovery after stroke," is so exciting. These researchers used optogenetics to selectively stimulate only neurons after stroke and were able to promote recovery in the treatment group.

Optogenetics is a technique for stimulating specific neuronal groups. Unlike electrical stimulation, optogenetics can selectively activate or inhibit a set of neurons with specific wavelengths of light. This light is delivered through a small cannula driven directly by LEDs or laser.

It's a thrilling time to be a part of the stroke care world!