ABSTRACT
The challenging aspect in each stroke patient is the question to what degree he or she will recover from his or her neurological deficit. Studies on large clinical cohorts showed that approximately half of the patients with completed stroke have persistent hemiparesis (1). Most recovery occurs during the first weeks following stroke (2, 3). Stroke can interfere with virtually every single capacity of the human brain. The resulting deficits can either be assessed in global terms such as the disability level of daily activities or scored for specific neurological impairments (4). The adequate assessment of the functional state has become increasingly important, as the correlation with the tissue perfusion state and with the recruitment of perilesional areas during functional activation provides the ground for evaluation of the efficacy of new therapeutic interventions that have recently come into clinical use. Since most of the recovery takes place early after stroke, a major question regarding the underlying mechanisms is how far the restoration of tissue function contributes to the reorganization of the remaining network.
