Discussion
interhemispheric Functional connectivity is Disrupted at 1 month after stroke and shows some recovery Toward normal levels at
6 months
Our findings of functional connectivity extend previous findings of changes in activation of brain regions with somatosensory impairment and add to the growing body of literature on the role of interhemispheric connectivity in stroke recovery across a range of functions. One month post-stroke, patients with impaired touch sensation and lesions predominantly located in soma- tosensory areas of the thalamus, and/or in cortical somatosensory regions (SI and/or SII), exhibited disruption of interhemispheric functional connectivity of homologous SI regions relative to age-matched healthy controls. At 1 month post-stroke, the stroke group only exhibited SI functional connectivity with SI within the same hemisphere; at 6 months, there was some return of interhemispheric SI connectivity.