Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Language

English

Publication Date

9-11-2025

Journal

Progress in Biomedical Engineering

DOI

10.1088/2516-1091/adfeaa

PMID

40845894

PMCID

PMC12443499

PubMedCentral® Posted Date

9-18-2025

PubMedCentral® Full Text Version

Author MSS

Abstract

Stroke is a leading cause of adult disability worldwide, with approximately 101 million survivors globally. Over 60% of these individuals live with from long-term, often lifelong, movement impairments that significantly hinder their ability to perform essential daily activities and maintain independence. Post-stroke movement disabilities are highly associated with structural and functional changes in motor descending pathways, particularly the corticospinal tract and other indirect motor pathways via the brainstem. For decades, neuroengineers have been working to quantitively evaluate the post-stroke changes of motor descending pathways, aiming to establish a precision prognosis and tailoring treatments to post-stroke motor impairment. However, a clear and practicable technique has not yet been established as a breakthrough to change the standard of care for current clinical practice. In this review, we outline recent progress in neuroimaging, neuromodulation, and electrophysiological approaches for assessing structural and functional changes of motor descending pathways in stroke. We also discuss their limitations and challenges, arguing the need of artificial intelligence and large multi-modal data registry for a groundbreaking advance to this important topic.

Keywords

Humans, Stroke, Neuroimaging, Pyramidal Tracts, Stroke Rehabilitation, Stroke, Motor Descending Pathways, MRI, Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS), Cortico-muscular connectivity

Published Open-Access

yes

Download

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.