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Background: Acute cerebral ischemia triggers a number of cellular mechanisms not only leading to excitotoxic cell death but also to enhanced neuroplasticity, facilitating neuronal reorganization and functional recovery. Objective: Transferring these cellular mechanisms to neurophysiological correlates adaptable to patients is crucial to promote recovery post-stroke. The combination of TMS and EEG constitutes a promising readout of neuronal network activity in stroke patients. Methods: We used the combination of TMS and EEG to investigate the development of local signal processing and global network alterations in 40 stroke patients with motor deficits alongside neural reorganization from the acute to the chronic phase. Results: We show that the TMS-EEG response reflects information about reorganization and signal alterations associated with persistent motor deficits throughout the entire post-stroke period. In the early post-stroke phase and in a subgroup of patients with severe motor deficits, TMS applied to the lesioned motor cortex evoked a sleep-like slow wave response associated with a cortical off-period, a manifestation of cortical bistability, as well as a rapid disruption of the TMS-induced formation of causal network effects. Mechanistically, these phenomena were linked to lesions affecting ascending activating brainstem fibers. Of note, slow waves invariably vanished in the chronic phase, but were highly indicative of a poor functional outcome. Conclusion: In summary, we found evidence that transient effects of sleep-like slow waves and cortical bistability within ipsilesional M1 resulting in excessive inhibition may interfere with functional reorganization, leading to a less favorable functional outcome post-stroke, pointing to a new therapeutic target to improve recovery of function.

Background: The complexity of neurophysiological brain responses to direct cortical stimulation, referred to as the perturbational complexity index (PCI), has been shown able to discriminate between consciousness and unconsciousness in patients surviving severe brain injury as well as several other conditions (e.g., wake, dreamless sleep, sleep and ketamine dreaming, anesthesia). Objective: This study asks whether, in patients with a disorder of consciousness (DOC), the complexity of the neurophysiological response to cortical stimulation is preferentially associated with atrophy within specific brain structures. Methods: We perform a retrospective analysis of 40 DOC patients and correlate their maximal PCI to MR-based measurements of cortical thinning and subcortical atrophy. Results: PCI was systematically and inversely associated with the degree of local atrophy within the globus pallidus, a region previously linked to electrocortical and behavioral arousal. Conversely, we fail to detect any association between variance in cortical ribbon thickness and PCI. Conclusion: These findings corroborate the previously reported association between pallidal atrophy and low behavioral arousal and suggest that this region’s role in maintaining the overall balance of excitation and inhibition may critically affect the emergence of complex cortical interactions in chronic disorders of consciousness. This finding thus also suggests a target for potential neuromodulatory intervention in DOC patients.