Asimina Lazaridou

Harvard University, Massachusetts General Hospital

Papers

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About

Asimina Lazaridou is a leading researcher in neurorehabilitation, with a focus on understanding and enhancing motor recovery after stroke. Her work bridges advanced neuroimaging and robotic-assisted therapy to uncover the mechanisms of brain plasticity. In her highly cited 2013 study, she demonstrated that functional MRI can serve as a molecular imaging procedure to map the reorganization of motor systems in chronic stroke patients, revealing how the brain compensates for injury by altering connectivity in motor execution networks. This work has garnered over 30 citations and reshaped perspectives on post-stroke plasticity. In a complementary study, also from 2013 and cited over 20 times, Lazaridou used diffusion tensor imaging and volumetric MRI alongside an MR-compatible hand-induced robotic device to provide direct evidence that training-induced neuroplasticity is possible even in the chronic phase of stroke. Her research challenges the assumption that recovery plateaus, showing that targeted therapy can drive structural and functional brain changes. Lazaridou’s work is pivotal for developing more effective rehabilitation strategies, offering hope for reducing long-term disability in stroke survivors.