The effect of biological sex on neuroplastic mechanisms involved in the recovery of post-stroke aphasia

Over the course of recovery from aphasia, different neuroplastic mechanisms are triggered in response to the stroke event that could mediate the recovery of language functions over time. The present project focuses on two possible inter-related neuroplastic mechanisms that may contribute to the recovery from aphasia, i.e. the axonal remodeling and the reorganization of the functional language network.

The role of sex in the neuroplastic mechanisms of recovery from aphasia in general or, more specifically, in the abovementioned two mechanisms has not been investigated yet. This is a potentially important oversight, since data on healthy study participants have shown that men and women present sex differences in the characteristics of their functional language network and its white matter fiber bundle connections and, consequently, on how a stroke can affect their language network. These data suggest the importance of studying the role of sex in neuroplastic mechanisms of language recovery.

The general objective of our proposed longitudinal neuroimaging research project is to determine whether and how sex influences the neuroplastic mechanisms involved in recovery from aphasia and the presence of long-term language deficits. The specific aim of this project is to longitudinally characterize the mechanisms of axonal remodeling and/or degeneration and the functional reorganization of the brain language network in men and women with post-stroke aphasia in the acute, sub-acute, and chronic stages of the disease.