Stroke is a major health issue. It is one of the main causes of acquired adult disability. A common deficit after stroke is the hemiparesis of the contralateral upper limb, with more than 80% of stroke inpatients experiencing this condition and in spite of intensive rehabilitation care, more than 40% of the patients still have this impairment chronically. The overall aim of this thesis is to understand how we reduce impairment in stroke patients with new treatment approaches. Previous studies have shown possible targets for new treatments. Patients with severe motor deficits show severe damage of the cortico-spinal tract (CST) and secondary degradation of white matter during the weeks after stroke. In these patients, inducing plasticity at the level of the CST or avoiding secondary degradation may enable the motor recovery processes, which are usually very limited or absent in these patients. Patients with mild or moderate motor deficits show high FC between the motor areas and the rest of the brain in the first weeks after stroke, which associates with better clinical recovery. In these patients, enhancing FC may improve the motor outcome above the proportional rule. In a first study, we recruited patients with mild and moderate motor deficits.