Dan

"The term brain plasticity defines all the modifications in the organization of neural components occurring in the central nervous system during the entire life span of an individual (Sale et al., 2009). Such changes are thought to be highly involved in mechanisms of aging, adaptation to environment and learning. Moreover, neuronal plastic phenomena are likely to be at the basis of adaptive modifications in response to anatomical or functional deficit or brain damage (Nudo, 2006). Ischemic damage causes a dramatic alteration of the entire complex neural network within the affected area. It has been amply demonstrated, by many studies, that the cerebral cortex exhibits spontaneous phenomena of brain plasticity in response to damage (Gerloff et al., 2006; Nudo, 2007). The destruction of neural networks indeed stimulates a reorganization of the connections and this rewiring is highly sensitive to the experience following the damage (Stroemer et al., 1993; Li and Carmichael, 2006). Such plastic phenomena involve particularly the perilesional tissue in the injured hemisphere, but also the contralateral hemisphere, subcortical and spinal regions."