Intensive rehabilitation is believed to induce use-dependent plasticity in the injured nervous system; however, its causal relationship to functional recovery is unclear. Here, we performed systematic analysis of the effects of forced use of an impaired forelimb on the recovery of @entity35 after lesioning the internal capsule with @entity1779 ( @entity1779 ). Forced limb use (FLU) group @entity35 exhibited better recovery of skilled forelimb functions and their cortical motor area with forelimb representation was restored and enlarged on the ipsilesional side. In addition, abundant axonal sprouting from the reemerged forelimb area was found in the ipsilateral red nucleus after FLU. To test the causal relationship between the plasticity in the cortico-rubral pathway and recovery, loss-of-function experiments were conducted using a double-viral vector technique, which induces selective blockade of the target pathway. Blockade of the cortico-rubral tract resulted in deficits of the recovered forelimb function in FLU group @entity35 . These findings suggest that the cortico-rubral pathway is a substrate for recovery induced by intensive rehabilitation after @entity1779 . SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The research aimed at determining the causal linkage between reorganization of the motor pathway induced by intensive rehabilitative training and recovery after @entity64 . We clarified the expansion of the forelimb representation area of the ipsilesional motor cortex by forced impaired forelimb use (FLU) after lesioning the internal capsule with @entity1779 ( @entity1779 ) in @entity35 . Anterograde tracing showed robust axonal sprouting from the forelimb area to the red nucleus in response to FLU. Selective blockade of the cortico-rubral pathway by the novel double-viral vector technique clearly revealed that the increased cortico-rubral axonal projections had causal linkage to the recovery of reaching movements induced by FLU. Our data demonstrate that the cortico-rubral pathway is responsible for the effect of intensive limb use.

Causal Link between the Cortico-Rubral Pathway and Functional Recovery through Forced Impaired Limb Use in XXXX with @entity64 .

@entity35 :: ('10116', 'Species') :: ['rats'] @entity64 :: ('MESH:D020521', 'Disease') :: ['stroke'] @entity1779 :: ('MESH:D002543', 'Disease') :: ['intracerebral hemorrhaging', 'ICH', 'intracerebral hemorrhage']
@entity35 :: (10116,Species) :: ['Rats']
