Can a pill mimic the effects of physical rehabilitation by restoring brain rhythms disrupted by stroke?

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability, and most survivors never fully recover, not because the brain can't repair itself, but because we haven't known how to help it. 

S. Thomas Carmichael, chair of the UCLA Department of Neurology, has spent decades studying exactly that. His lab recently identified a drug candidate, DDL-920, that mimics the effects of physical rehabilitation by restoring brain rhythms disrupted by stroke. 

The goal: a pill that produces the benefits of rehab for patients who can't sustain its intensity. Rehabilitation needs to enter the era of molecular medicine. David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA is leading the way. 

Read the entire paper: Parvalbumin interneurons regulate rehabilitation-induced functional recovery after stroke and identify a rehabilitation drug