Could saccadic function be a useful marker of stroke recovery?

There is no pharmacological therapy presently available to improve the long-term recovery from acute ischaemic stroke. Either there hasn't yet been a suitable treatment trialled, or the tools for measuring recovery have not been sensitive enough. It is critical therefore to continue to search for robust objective markers of stroke recovery in parallel with the push for drug discovery. Can saccade measures provide such a marker? Dong et al report that in a limited number of mild stroke patients, saccadic parameters that probe cognitive function, especially errors of inhibition during antisaccade and memory-guided paradigms, were abnormal immediately after stroke and improved over time but not to normal.1 These saccade measures appeared to be more sensitive than clinical assessment scales in reflecting initial cognitive impairment and recovery. The authors argue that such measures might provide useful and objective markers of cognitive recovery following stroke, and less time consuming...
Source: Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry - Category: Neurosurgery Authors: Tags: Other rehabilitative therapies, Genetics, Immunology (including allergy), Brain stem / cerebellum, Drugs: CNS (not psychiatric), Movement disorders (other than Parkinsons), Multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, Spinal cord, Stroke, Ophthalmology, Memor Source Type: research