Advances of Neurorehabilitation and the Neural Basis

Dear Colleagues,

Nowadays, neuromodulation technologies, such as neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), repetitive peripheral magnetic stimulation (rPMS), repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), and transcranial direct current stimulation (t-DCS), play an important part in the neurorehabilitation management of patients suffering from a wide range of pathologies (stroke, spinal cord injuries, traumatic brain injuries, spasticity, dysphagia, etc.). A new type of rPMS has recently appeared, which is easier to handle than the conventional one with a round coil or figure of 8. In addition, the possibility of a brain–machine interface combined with NMES applied to tetraplegia after spinal cord injury has been demonstrated. Additionally, there is increasing evidence of the beneficial effect of neuromodulation techiniques in improvement of different disabilities. However, it remains unclear how neuromodulation techniques could facilitate improvements in disabilities. Given that recovery of motor paresis after stroke and tetraplegia due to spinal cord injury has been closely associated with cortical reorganization in the brain, it is plausible that neuromodulation might enhance the plastic change.

This Special Issue on “Advances of Neurorehabilitation and the Neural Basis” will explore the implementations and future prospects of the techniques. In this Special Issue, we would like to share concerns for heterogeneous stimulus conditions among studies and discuss possible neural mechanism underlying the benefit of neuromodulation. Our ultimate goal is to conquer disabilities, which is realized by maximizing the benefit of neuromodulation techniques, and it is why we should investigate further the possible neural mechanisms as well as the pros and cons of the techniques.

Prof. Dr. Shigeru Obayashi
Guest Editors

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