title: Neurobiological bases of rehabilitation.
abstract: The adult brain maintains the ability to reorganise throughout life. Motor cortical representations can reorganise rapidly in response to different stimuli. Important mechanisms for mediating reorganisation in the cerebral cortex involve the unmasking of existing, but latent, horizontal connections and modulation of GABAergic inhibition and synaptic efficacy. Interfering with these mechanisms can either block or enhance reorganisational processes. Following injury to the motor cortex alterations of the neurotransmitter system regulation, recruitment of additional undamaged brain areas even remote from the injury, and anatomical alterations such as axonal sprouting and synaptogenesis in the brain tissue surrounding the lesion or in the homotopic motor area of the non-affected hemisphere occur. The understanding of cortical reorganisation may enable us to apply principles of plasticity to the rehabilitation of patients after brain injury.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Robert C. Byrd Health Science Center, 1 Medical Center Drive, 9180, Morgantown, WV 26506-9180, USA. cbuetefisch@hsc.wvu.edu
authors.forename: C M
authors.initials: CM
authors.lastname: Bütefisch
mesh_terms: D000661:Amphetamine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009446:Neurobiology / Q000379:methods*; D009473:Neuronal Plasticity / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D000697:Central Nervous System Stimulants; D000661:Amphetamine