New Advances in Neurorehabilitation after Stroke

Dear Colleagues,

The number of people with disabilities and the complexity of their needs and those of their families continue to increase despite advances in technology and health care. This increase is also directly related to the rapid aging of the world's population and the increase in age-related diseases. According to the World Health Organization, 15 million people worldwide suffer a stroke each year. Of these people, about one-third are functionally disabled and have difficulty regaining their independence. New technologies have been integrated into the rehabilitation field to improve the effectiveness of rehabilitation strategies for these conditions. These include robotic rehabilitation, virtual reality, functional electrical stimulation, noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) to improve the intensity and quality of neurorehabilitation and affect brain excitability and plasticity, and innovative approaches such as assistive technologies and domotics.

Also, exploring the effects of neurorehabilitation technologies and NIBS on plasticity through the use of advanced technologies (e.g., functional MRI, near-infrared spectroscopy, high-density EEG, etc.) may provide a surrogate for outcome measurement in the near future. Translational models are important to provide a solid neurobiological basis for current advanced rehabilitation approaches in stroke. The correlation between central nervous system lesions and clinical features and outcomes provides the basis for tailored neurorehabilitation, a promising perspective to explain the differential individual responses to treatment and improve the quality of care. Defining new approaches to the acute and chronic phases of neurological disease and the most appropriate timing will play a key role in optimizing neurorehabilitation interventions. In addition, new randomized controlled trials are being developed to investigate the role of combined drug and physical therapy treatment.

The scope of this special issue and the type of contributions we are soliciting is to bring together research activities on innovative technologies for both assessment and treatment in stroke rehabilitation and to update knowledge on the latest advances in neurorehabilitation.

Dr. Andrea Turolla
Dr. Sanaz Pournajaf
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Journal of Clinical Medicine is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• stroke
• innovative technologies
• robotic rehabilitation
• virtual reality
• telerehabilitation
• Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)
• Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
• functional outcome predictors