Applying Neuroplasticity for Motor Rehabilitation After a Stroke

When you have suffered from a stroke, getting your motor skills back up to where they were before can be challenging. It can be incredibly frustrating, but there are many methods you can use  to recover what you may have temporarily lost. Recovering your motor function often involves relearning motor skills, and believe it or not, you can remedy it best through neuroplasticity.

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Up to one-third of patients who had a stroke often show significant disability after the initial episode. In addition, many of them often suffer from motor impairments in the future. Neuroplasticity can actually help you to reconnect your motor neurons, assisting with healing the impacted region of the body. This is extremely helpful for individuals who have experienced a stroke in their past.

Using Neuroplasticity To Spark Motor Skill Development

There have been significant developments in the area of neuroplasticity. For many, this is excellent news! Especially if you are looking to develop your motor skills. There are several different treatment approaches, but neuroplasticity is beginning to get more attention because it can help retrain the body to learn his motor skills and use them appropriately, as long as the individual recognizes how their bodies can help them reacquire specific skills.

There are many activities performed by patients that improve their ability to perform specific motor skills. For instance, the brain will be tasked with employing the neurons to connect from the neuron receptors to the nerves in hand to draw a face. Additionally, people might also see that they have to work harder to grip something with their hand to pick it up off the table. Through neuroplasticity, recovery is achievable in time and with regular practice.

How It Works

For those interested in how motor skills develop, neuroplasticity actually can help with motor learning in general. In addition, some specific processes and activities have been identified through research studies, especially in terms of how aerobic exercise and motor learning can come together to promote the individual’s recovery.

People see direct results in their neurotrophic growth factors and their neurotransmitter responses. Neurotrophic growth factors support the growth, survival, and differentiation of both developing and mature neurons. Individuals who regularly practice neuroplasticity and aerobic exercise in their rehabilitation after a stroke see improvements: better cognitive function, learning, memory, improved mood, and less neurodegeneration over time. For many individuals who undergo this training, this seems to be the key that helps them recover what they once lost.

Neuroplasticity Helps in the Long Term

One of the most exciting parts of how neuroplasticity is becoming involved in post-stroke rehabilitation is its significant long-term potential. Many of the individuals who engage in their training and activities regularly see long term and continuous improvements to their brain’s function and health. Along with improved brain function, comes increased strength and resilience of the central nervous system.

In one study, scientists compared the results of aerobic exercise therapies with neuroplasticity training. They found aerobic exercise to create significant short-term results, but none that were long-term. People would only achieve it through regular habits and exercise. However, neuroplasticity, which is dependent on experience and learning, proved to be a significant long-term potential solution for patients who needed physical therapy after a significant injury or health episode. Individuals learned how to use their motor skills. Their investment into motor skills training prepared their brains for neuroplasticity exercises, proving to be a significant benefit to their rate of recovery.

Aerobic Exercise and Neuroplasticity Together

However, it’s also important to mention that it’s possible to have aerobic exercise and neuroplasticity working together to achieve your recovery goals. When one continues with aerobic exercise to keep up with motor skills but then goes right into neuroplasticity training, there are some significant effects. The response to the rehabilitation is significantly better if one is exercising beforehand. Exercise helps put the brain in the right state to take in this information, which makes the treatment all the more worthwhile.

Finding the Right Neuroplasticity Program

Now that the benefits of neuroplasticity have been explained, there are many steps that you can take to find the right program. Although re-origin is not particularly a stroke rehabilitation program, our course and community can help people post rehab to increase their functionality and regain vitality and happiness.