November 30, 2016 – Stroke Rehab

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Anchor lead: Does learning lead to repair of injury in stroke patients? Elizabeth Tracey reports

Use of a video game-like training program for people who’ve had a stroke shows that training really doesn’t impact repair of the brain damage but can help them learn new skills, a study led by Pablo Celnik, a stroke recovery expert at Johns Hopkins, and colleagues has shown.

Celnik: What we see is that all of the groups learn, but despite the fact that you are learning in the task you are not changing your neurological deficit.   :08

Celnik says this study looked at only people who had had a stroke some months ago, having brain injury considered chronic.

Celnik: It’s good news and it’s bad news.  The bad news first is that in the chronic situation, the learning process does not really change the neurological deficit.  However the good news is that you can learn new tasks, which means that people with practice can perform better at the things that they’re practicing at.   :18

Celnik says those in the study were encouraged by the fact that they continued to learn new skills months after their stroke. At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.