Dr. Gary Steinberg

So by modulating somehow the immune system in the brain,

they are able to induce plasticity and recover function.

Yes, there's a lot of evidence that activity, physical therapy, even forced activity is very beneficial.

And it's not just stimulating endogenous stem cells in the brain, but it's multiple mechanisms.

It's recruiting circuits that were not involved before.

For instance, studies have been done on stroke patients who make a recovery show that not only is the site of the stroke,

improving in some cases but the other side of the brain is showing increased activity so circuits on the other side of the brain may be contributing to the recovery on the side of the stroke brain so it's much more complex than we thought it was

Yeah, we almost recruited Tim to our department.

Yeah, it's called constraint therapy.

And not only has it been shown in animal studies preclinically, but it's been shown in some clinical studies of patients with stroke.

In fact, one of the trials we did with transplanting stem cells into the brain included...

restraining the good limb to force use of the other limb.

So there's some very intriguing data suggesting that that's important.

However, some of the animal studies also suggest that you may have to wait a time.

If you force use of the involved limb too soon, it can be detrimental to the recovery.

I see.

So there may be an important temporal factor there in terms of the timing of when you do that.

Right.

So this is a very interesting subject.

Back in the late 1980s, 1990s, a lot of emphasis was placed on trying to protect the brain against acute stroke.