Reduced use of a limb proves the power of brain elasticity

Swiss scientists have shown that breaking your arm can greatly affect your brain. It appears that immobilising the broken limb reduces the thickness of part of the cerebral cortex. Professor Lutz Jäncke and colleagues at the University of Zurich in Switzerland report their findings in the journal Neurology this week.

The motor cortex on the left side of the brain controls the right arm, and the team found that its thickness had decreased significantly in response to the arm’s lack of use. They also found thinning in the fibre tract.“What we have found so far from studies on the plasticity of the brain is that we need to use it or lose it”, says Jäncke.

Jäncke thinks his findings may have relevance for ‘constraint-induced therapy’ which is often used in stroke victims. In this therapy, when a stroke has affected one arm of a patient, the remaining (good) arm is immobilised using a sling, forcing the patient to use and improve their stroke-affected limb. Jäncke’s work suggests that the motor cortex controlling the good arm will thin with disuse.

(via DiscoveryNews)

(Source: articulomortis)