Traumatic Brain Injury: New Study Shows How Injured Brain Compensates

A recent study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon have potential to affect future studies of the sensory deprivation that is caused by stroke or traumatic brain injury. For over decade, researchers have been aware that the brain can adapt in response to injury that affects bodily motion. However, this most recent study is the first that shows an enhancement of brain activity in a mouse with sensory loss. Loss of sight, hearing, taste, smell, or touch are common side effects of both traumatic brain injuries and strokes.

Carnegie Mellon University research shows how sensory-deprived brain compensates

Alison Barth, an assistant professor of biological sciences at Carnegie Mellon, says that "Our findings are the first to show this degree of brain adaptability in a setting with significantly limited sensory input. This finding tells us that brain function is plastic, or reparable, when a sense like touch has been profoundly diminished. Plasticity is an important indicator that the brain is reorganizing to compensate for an injury or deficit." In an especially surprising experiment, Barth found that a single-whiskered mouse is more likely to generate new brain activity than a mouse who has a whisker on one side of its head and full whiskers on the other side. "These findings show us that a fully functioning set of whiskers on one side of the body dramatically inhibits the ability of a single whisker to remodel the brain," said Barth. "This finding suggests that we could boost the brain's plasticity if we 'turn off' sensory input from the opposite side of the body."