So to light up the cortex when they assumed a stroke would occur, the researchers tweaked the rats’ sensitive whiskers as a sort of trigger. But as they discovered, stimulating just a single whisker did more than activate the cerebral cortex. It also somehow caused blood in the plugged arteries to flow backwards and find another route to the brain. And so the rats avoided a stroke. It’s not clear that preventing stroke in this way would work in people. After all, we don’t have whiskers. But our fingers and lips are similar to rats’ whiskers in that they’re connected to our brains in nearly the same way. So it’s possible that, in the event of a stroke, stimulating fingertips and lips may help stop it. Further research will help scientists know for sure.