title: Gait improvement after treadmill training in ischemic stroke survivors: A critical review of functional MRI studies.
abstract: Stroke survivors often present with abnormal gait, movement training can improve the walking performance post-stroke, and functional MRI can objectively evaluate the brain functions before and after movement training. This paper analyzes the functional MRI changes in patients with ischemic stroke after treadmill training with voluntary and passive ankle dorsiflexion. Functional MRI showed that there are some changes in some regions of patients with ischemic stroke including primary sensorimotor cortex, supplementary motor area and cingulate motor area after treadmill training. These findings suggest that treadmill training likely improves ischemic stroke patients' lower limb functions and gait performance and promotes stroke recovery by changing patients' brain plasticity; meanwhile, the novel treadmill training methods can better training effects.
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.affiliation: Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, First Affiliated Hospital of Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou 510080, Guangdong Province, China.
authors.forename: Dongfeng
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: New York University School of Medicine, Rusk Institute of Rehabilitation Medicine/NYU Langone Medical Center, New York 10011, NY, USA.
authors.forename: Bryan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: O'Young
keywords: ankle kinematics; cerebral plasticity; functional MRI; gait; lower limb function; neural regeneration; neurodegenerative disease; regeneration; stroke; treadmill exercise