PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - Anna Letizia Allegra Mascaro AU - Emilia Conti AU - Stefano Lai AU - Antonino Paolo Di Giovanna AU - Cristina Spalletti AU - Claudia Alia AU - Eros Quarta AU - Alessandro Panarese AU - Leonardo Sacconi AU - Silvestro Micera AU - Matteo Caleo AU - Francesco Saverio Pavone TI - Rehabilitation promotes the recovery of distinct functional and structural features of healthy neuronal networks after stoke AID - 10.1101/141697 DP - 2017 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 141697 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/02/141697.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/08/02/141697.full AB - Rehabilitation is the most effective treatment for promoting the recovery of motor deficits after stroke. Despite its importance, the processes associated with rehabilitative intervention are poorly understood. One of the most challenging experimental goals is to unambiguously link specific circuit changes induced by rehabilitation in recovering animals to improved behavior. Here, we investigate which facets of cortical remodeling are induced by rehabilitative therapy after stroke by combining optical imaging and manipulation tools. We demonstrate the progressive restoration of cortical motor maps and of cortical activity in parallel with the reinforcement of inter-hemispheric connectivity after rehabilitation. Furthermore, we reveal that the increase in vascular density goes along with the stabilization of peri-infarct neural circuitry at synaptic level. The present work provides the first evidences that rehabilitation is sufficient to promote the combined recovery of distinct structural and functional features distinctive of healthy neuronal networks. We believe that understanding the plastic changes induced by rehabilitation will lead to more effective interventions to improve recovery after stroke.