Baby ‘brain plasticity’ may help development of treatment for adults after stroke

After suffering a stroke the impact on the brain can cause lasting damage in adults, however, according to new research out of Georgetown University Medical Center, babies’ brains can adapt and rewire allowing other undamaged regions to perform tasks.

The researchers found that in all study participants who had experienced a perinatal stroke that had damaged the left side of the brain used for language after about a decade or two the right side of the brain had been activated for use in this task instead. This rewiring, or ‘brain plasticity’, can occur in brains no matter the age but it is generally believed that the degree of plasticity is greater in younger brains.

All of the 12 participants included in the study, now aged between 12 and 25, had good, normal language skills according to one of the team, cognitive neuroscientist, Elissa L. Newport, PhD, professor of neurology at Georgetown University School of Medicine, and director of the Center for Brain Plasticity and Recovery at Georgetown University and MedStar National Rehabilitation Network.

Some signs of brain damage, such as a slight limp and more dominance in the left hand as a result of impairment to right hand function, were seen in a few of the participants. Additionally, there were some executive function impairments, for example slower neural processing, seen in the individuals. However, Newport specified that cognitive functions were excellent.

When imaging the brains of those included in the study, the team found that the new regions of the brain used for language were in an exact mirror image placement to the usual left side areas common in people who have not suffered a brain injury. Yet, Newport stressed that although the young brains included in the study demonstrated a high level of plasticity and ability to relocate the tasks from damaged to undamaged regions of the brain, it doesn’t necessarily mean this type of relocation can occur ‘willy-nilly’.

“We believe there are very important constraints to where functions can be relocated,” she added. “There are very specific regions that take over when part of the brain is injured, depending on the particular function. Each function, like language or spatial skills, has a particular region that can take over if its primary brain area is injured. This is a very important discovery that may have implications in the rehabilitation of adult stroke survivors.

“Imaging shows that children up to about age four can process language in both sides of their brains, and then the functions split up: the left side processes sentences and the right processes emotion in language.”

The Georgetown University researchers are looking to extend this study with a larger population and the impact of where the stroke occurred on relocation of tasks. Additionally, they hope to investigate the molecular basis of plasticity so that they may be able to translate the research into the brains of adults who have suffered damage.

These findings have been reported at the 2018 meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Austin, Texas.