Neural Plasticity on Body Representations: Advancing Translational Rehabilitation

Various physical/mental disorders lead to changes in body representation in the brain that could significantly impact the daily life and function. Advances in noninvasive brain imaging technologies have increased our understanding of neural plasticity that induces functional and structural changes in the central nervous system. Although some neural plasticity aids in the acquisition of new skills and compensates for a loss of function in the body, it has been reported that injury and excessive training drive neural plasticity to maladaptive directions. This neural plasticity is called “maladaptive plasticity” that inhibits complete recovery after injury [1]. This phenomenon is well investigated in body representations after amputation. Maladaptive plasticity after amputation is associated with increased local reorganization within and/or beyond the deafferented sensorimotor cortex [2]. One remote effect of this phenomenon is the reduction of hemispheric asymmetry after amputation, which may reflect the interhemispheric imbalance induced by such reorganization of the deafferented sensorimotor cortex and/or use-dependent changes in the overused intact limb representation.