Washington – Stroke is the third leading cause of death and the leading cause of disability in developed countries. In the last 30 years there have been significant advances in the treatment of acute stroke, such as the use of drugs that can dissolve a blood clot (thrombolytics) or more recently through tools that allow the insertion of a catheter in cerebral arteries to improve circulation by removing the clot (thrombectomy). A team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine (St. Louis, Missouri USA) and the Department of Neurosciences of the University of Padua has shown in a study published in these days on “Human Nature Behavior” as two groups of related deficits explain the majority of disability after stroke: specifically, deficits of movement and attention, on one hand, and memory and language deficits, on the other hand, seem to be the “canonical” losses in a stroke. (9colonne)