DEFICIENT CEREBRAL ACTIVATION PATTERN IN STROKE RECOVERY

SPECIFIC cerebral activations induced by unilateral tactile discrimina tion of macrogeometric objects were identified in positron emission to mography images of regional cerebral blood flow in patients recovered from hemiplegic stroke and in healthy volunteers. Primary sensorimotor cortex, supplementary motor area, superior parietal lobule contralate ral to moving hand, and premotor cortex on both sides were regularly a ctivated in normals contrary to patients showing consistent activation s only in the primary sensorimotor cortex. Furthermore, areas of activ ations in parietal association, premotor and midfrontal cortical areas were far less consistently activated in patients than in healthy subj ects. These results demonstrated in correspondence to the clinical obs ervations that the patients had regained their ability to move the fin gers of the affected hand but remained impaired in tactile discriminat ion.