What is brain plasticity and why is it important following a brain injury?
Brain plasticity is the phenomenon by which the brain can rewire and reorganize itself in response to changing stimulus input. Brain plasticity is at play when one is learning new information (at school) or learning a new language and occurs throughout one’s life.
Brain plasticity is particularly important after a brain injury, as the neurons in the brain are damaged after a brain injury, and depending on the type of brain injury, plasticity may either include repair of damaged brain regions or reorganization/rewiring of different parts of the brain.
How much is known about the level of injury the brain can recover from? Over what time period does the brain adapt to an injury?
A lot is known about brain plasticity immediately after an injury. Like any other injury to the body, after an initial negative reaction to the injury, the brain goes through a massive healing process, where the brain tries to repair itself after the injury. Research tells us exactly what kinds of repair processes occur hours, days and weeks after the injury.
What is not well understood is how recovery continues to occur in the long term. So, there is a lot research showing that the brain is plastic, and undergoes recovery even months after the brain damage, but what promotes such recovery and what hinders such recovery is not well understood.
It is well understood that some rehabilitative training promotes brain injury and most of the current research is focused on this topic.
What techniques are used to study brain plasticity?
Human brain plasticity has mostly been studied using non-invasive imaging methods, because these techniques allow us to measure the gray matter (neurons), white matter (axons) at a somewhat coarse level. MRI and fMRI techniques provide snapshots and video of the brain in function, and that allows us to capture changes in the brain that are interpreted as plasticity.
Also, more recently, there are invasive stimulation methods such as transcranial direct current stimulation or transcranial magnetic stimulation which allow providing electric current or magnetic current to different parts of the brain and such stimulation causes certain changes in the brain.
How has our understanding advanced over recent years?
One of the biggest shifts in our understanding of brain plasticity is that it is a lifelong phenomenon. We used to previously think that the brain is plastic only during childhood and once you reach adulthood, the brain is hardwired, and no new changes can be made to it.
However, we now know that even the adult brain can be modified and reorganized depending on what new information it is learning. This understanding has a profound impact on recovery from brain injury because it means that with repeated training/instruction, even the damaged brain is plastic and can recover.
What role do you see personalized medicine playing in brain therapy in the future?
One reason why rehabilitation after brain injury is so complex is because no two individuals are alike. Each individual’s education and life experiences have shaped their brain (due to plasticity!) in unique ways, so after a brain injury, we cannot expect that recovery in two individuals will be occur the same way.
Personalized medicine allows the ability to tailor treatment for each individual taking into account their strengths and weaknesses and providing exactly the right kind of therapy for that person. Therefore, one size treatment does not fit all, and individualized treatments prescribed to the exact amount of dosage will become a reality.
What is ‘automedicine’ and do you think this could become a reality?
I am not sure we understand what automedicine can and cannot do just yet, so it’s a little early to comment on the reality. Using data to improve our algorithms to precisely deliver the right amount of rehabilitation/therapy will likely be a reality very soon, but it is not clear that it will eliminate the need for doctors or rehabilitation professionals.
What do you think the future holds for people recovering from strokes and brain injuries and what’s Constant Therapy’s vision?
The future for people recovering from strokes and brain injuries is more optimistic than it has ever been for three important reasons. First, as I pointed above, there is tremendous amount of research showing that the brain is plastic throughout life, and this plasticity can be harnessed after brain injury also.
Second, recent advances in technology allow patients to receive therapy at their homes at their convenience, empowering them to take control of their therapy instead of being passive consumers.
Finally, the data that is collected from individuals who continuously receive therapy provides a rich trove of information about how patients can improve after rehabilitation, what works and what does not work.
Constant Therapy’s vision incorporates all these points and its goal to provide effective, efficient and reasonable rehabilitation to patients recovering from strokes and brain injury.
Where can readers find more information?
About Dr Swathi Kiran
Swathi Kiran is Professor in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences at Boston University and Assistant in Neurology/Neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital. Prior to Boston University, she was at University of Texas at Austin. She received her Ph.D from Northwestern University.
Her research interests focus around lexical semantic treatment for individuals with aphasia, bilingual aphasia and neuroimaging of brain plasticity following a stroke.
She has over 70 publications and her work has appeared in high impact journals across a variety of disciplines including cognitive neuroscience, neuroimaging, rehabilitation, speech language pathology and bilingualism.
She is a fellow of the American Speech Language and Hearing Association and serves on various journal editorial boards and grant review panels including at National Institutes of Health.
Her work has been continually funded by the National Institutes of Health/NIDCD and American Speech Language Hearing Foundation awards including the New Investigator grant, the New Century Scholar’s Grant and the Clinical Research grant. She is the co-founder and scientific advisor for Constant Therapy, a software platform for rehabilitation tools after brain injury.
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