A stroke occurs somewhere in the world every 2 s adding up to almost 17 million people each year (Feigin et al. 2014 ). Stroke is one of the most common causes of disability. Over one million people in the UK are currently living with the consequences of stroke, over one-third of whom are dependent on others for their care. Even though stroke mortality is declining (Lackland et al. 2014) , the number of people set to live with the consequences of stroke is set to rise over the next 20 years

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... el et al. 2017; Crichton et al. 2016 ) with huge personal, societal and economic consequences (Patel et al. 2017 ). Improvement of recovery and long-term outcomes is therefore an urgent clinical and scientific goal, but success is slow to materialize. Understanding the underlying neurobiology of stroke recovery could speed up ways to help improve outcomes. Care in the hyperacute and acute period after stroke has improved dramatically over the past two decades, but it is widely accepted that our attention must turn to treatments that actively promote recovery. The key treatments for promoting behavioural recovery in motor, language and cognitive domains after stroke are themselves behavioural treatments (loosely grouped under the headings physiotherapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, neuropsychology) that we can consider inputs (into the brain). The consequent change in behaviour can be