Cognition and recovery

In the last decades, stroke recovery was investigated mainly by tracking of motor recovery. However, the huge number of patients become disable and dependent after stroke due to the post-stroke cognitive impairment.

Figure 1 demonstrates the example of post-stroke cognitive impairment and its recovery. Despite of young age and small lesion size, cognitive impairment persisted till 3 months post-stroke.

The mechanistical understanding of underlying factors and prediction of recovery of post-stroke cognitive impairment are challenging due to the high inter-individual variability.

In our research project, we aim to understand inter-individual variability in stroke patients by application and adaptation of concepts of brain reserve and cognitive reserve. We aim to investigate what factors impact on severity of post-stroke cognitive impairment and might predict further recovery. We want to understand, whether and how the lifestyle before and after stroke impacts on post-stroke cognition.

We believe that results of our research might help to improve the individual treatment decisions in stroke, to prevent post-stroke dementia and to establish the individual rehabilitation approaches.