Abstract
One of the most revolutionary scientific concepts for patients with stroke is that of neuroplasticity. Reorganization of brain structure and function allows for measurable behavioural improvements, even years post-stroke (Hope et al., 2017). Yet understanding the process by which regions change functional responsibility, and which patterns of reorganization are most advantageous to stroke outcome, has proven challenging. These issues have been studied extensively with reference to aphasia. This research has produced conflicting results concerning the role of perilesional and contralesional regions in language recovery. For example, there is an ongoing debate concerning the extent to which perilesional and contralesional regions play a facilitatory role, and whether some contralesional regions may in fact impede performance (Geranmayeh et al., 2014). In this issue of Brain, Nardo and co-workers present an exciting advance on previous work by using functional imaging not only to consider therapeutic outcomes, but also to study the processes that support therapeutic improvements (Nardo et al., 2017).