Research, published in the Annals of Neurology, is the first step in a multiyear project assessing how to predict how well people will recover from stroke.

After a stroke, the brain suffers more broadly than just at the spot that was starved of blood. New research, which uses brain imaging to examine connections between different parts of the brain, shows that communication between the left and right hemispheres is often disrupted; the greater the disruption, the more profound the patient's impairment in movement or vision. Researchers hope to use the approach to predict which patients are mostly likely to recover on their own and which will need the most intensive therapy.  Researchers will repeat the brain scanning and behavioral testing months after the patients' strokes to see how both change over time.

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