FCnet

Susceptibility to multitasking in chronic stroke is associated to damage of the multiple demand system and leads to lateralized visuospatial deficits. A new paper discussing multitasking as a tool to unveil subtle deficits after stroke. We argue that attentional load provides a simple strategy, firmly grounded in theory, to study the gray area in which stroke can or cannot result in stark deficits. This is an opportunity to better frame the mismatch between the amount of brain damage and its consequences, in an era in which this line is becoming increasingly blurred.

Recent studies have shown that brain lesions following stroke can be probabilistically mapped onto disconnections of white matter tracts, and that the resulting “disconnectome” is predictive of the patient’s behavioral deficits.