White Matter Reorganization & Functional Recovery Following Stroke in Adult Rat

Chrystelle Po¹, Young-Beom Kim¹, Daniel Kalthoff¹, Melanie Nelles¹, Mathias Hoehn¹

The brain seems to be, after stroke, capable of recovering functional activity by adaptation of the neuronal networks. The aim of the present study was to correlate structural cerebral reorganisation with functional recovery after transient focal ischemia in adult rat. For this purpose, high resolution Diffusion Spectrum Imaging (DSI) was applied together with BOLD fMRI. The combination of tractography and fMRI results indicated a link between the functional recovery post-stroke and the presence of white matter reorganization combined with the one of interhemispheric connection.