Investigation of Cortical Changes Following Spinal Cord Injury

描述：(申请人提供) 职业发展奖(CDA)经验包括研究、专业和临床经验，这些经验将使被提名者为退伍军人管理局的独立调查员职业生涯做好准备。被提名者目前是弗吉尼亚州匹兹堡医疗系统的研究生物医学工程师和匹兹堡大学的助理教授。她的研究兴趣包括通过新的康复范例或辅助技术恢复或增强患有运动障碍的退伍军人的功能。CDA建议的研究和培训将使她提高与神经解剖学/生理学、高维神经数据统计分析、授权术以及书面和口头沟通技能相关的技能。导师团队包括神经解剖学(Peter Strick，博士)、康复研究(Michael Boninger，医学博士)和神经工程学(Douglas Weber，博士)领域的专家，他们将推动这一项目。作为CDA的一部分，被提名者将参加与神经可塑性、神经康复和神经工程相关的期刊俱乐部、研究研讨会和专业会议。她还将参加系统神经科学和神经数据处理方面的课程。每隔一周将有半天时间在物理和职业治疗诊所度过，以了解现有治疗方法的优点和局限性以及残疾退伍军人的需求。作为职业发展的一部分，她将定期在当地和专业会议上展示她的工作。预计这项工作将产生至少三份第一作者出版物，被提名者将在CDA1接近完成时提交CDA2提案。发展这些研究和专业技能将使被提名者能够从事与神经科学和神经康复有关的独立研究事业，目标是开发新的康复战略和辅助技术。这项拟议的研究是关于颈髓损伤(SCI)患者与运动规划相关的皮质变化的调查。脊髓损伤导致运动控制能力低于损伤水平，四肢瘫痪患者已将恢复手功能视为增加独立性和改善生活质量的优先事项。研究人员正在努力开发神经假体，以恢复运动障碍患者的功能。其他人正在研究脊髓修复或再生技术。这两种有希望的疗法都需要大脑中完整的运动控制网络。然而，脊髓损伤后，传出和传入神经通路的中断可能会导致大脑水平的变化。为了开发新的康复策略或辅助技术，了解脊髓损伤如何影响负责运动控制的大脑区域是很重要的。在这项拟议的研究中，脑磁图将被用来检查脊髓损伤患者和正常对照组参与者在视觉引导下的隐蔽(想象和观察)和公开运动中运动、视觉和顶叶关联区的激活的空间和时间模式。将研究两种类型的运动，一种是四肢瘫痪的受试者由于完全瘫痪而无法明显表现，另一种是被定义为轻度或部分瘫痪的瘫痪。运动过程中的皮质活动可能会因相关肌肉系统的损伤程度而不同，从而导致不同的康复策略。这项研究结果将为了解慢性脊髓损伤对大脑皮层感觉运动区功能的影响提供重要的见解，并将指导神经反馈训练范式的发展，以增强运动皮质区域的激活，以加强皮质脊髓与被脊髓损伤削弱的肌肉的联系。

DESCRIPTION: (provided by applicant) The Career Development Award (CDA) experience includes research, professional, and clinical experience that will be prepare the nominee for a career as an independent investigator within the VA. The nominee is currently a Research Biomedical Engineer at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System and an Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research interests include restoring or augmenting function for veterans with motor impairments through novel rehabilitation paradigms or assistive technologies. The research and training proposed in this CDA will allow her to improve her skills related to neuroanatomy/physiology, statistical analysis of high dimensional neural data, grantsmanship, and written and oral communication skills. The mentorship team includes experts in the fields of neuroanatomy (Peter Strick, PhD), rehabilitation research (Michael Boninger, MD), and neural engineering (Douglas Weber, PhD) who will facilitate this project. As part of this CDA, the nominee will attend journal clubs, research seminars, and professional conferences relevant to neuroplasticity, neurorehabilitation, and neural engineering. She will also take classes in Systems Neuroscience and Neural Data Processing. One half day every other week will be spent in the Physical and Occupational Therapy clinic to learn the strengths and limitations of currently available therapies as well as the needs of veterans with disabilities. As part of professional development, she will present her work regularly both locally and at professional conferences. At least three first author publications are expected to result from this work and the nominee will submit a CDA2 proposal as the CDA1 nears completion. Developing these research and professional skills will allow the nominee to pursue an independent research career related to neuroscience and neurorehabilitation with the goal of developing new rehabilitation strategies and assistive technologies. The proposed research is an investigation of cortical changes related to motor planning in individuals with cervical spinal cord injury (SCI). SCI results in the loss of motor control below the level of injury and individuals with tetraplegia have identified restoration of hand function as a priority to increase independence and improve quality of life. Researchers are working to develop neuroprosthetics restore function to people with motor impairments. Others are working towards spinal cord repair or regeneration techniques. Both of these promising therapies require intact motor control networks in the brain. However, following SCI, the disruption of efferent and afferent neural pathways likely leads to changes at the level of the brain. In order to develop new rehabilitative strategies or assistive technologies, it is important to understand how SCI affects the areas of the brain that are responsible for motor control. In the proposed study, MEG will be used to examine spatial and temporal patterns of activation in motor, visual, and parietal association areas in persons with SCI and able-bodied control participants performing visually guided covert (imagined and observed) and overt movements. Two types of movements will be studied, one that subjects with tetraplegia cannot perform overtly due to complete paralysis and a second movement limited by paresis, which is defined as a slight or partial paralysis. Cortical activity during movement may differ with the degree of impairment in the associated musculature leading to different rehabilitation strategies. Results from this study will provide important insight into the effects of chronic SCI on the functioning of sensorimotor regions of cerebral cortex and will guide the development of neurofeedback training paradigms for enhancing activation of motor cortical areas to strengthen corticospinal connection to muscles weakened by SCI.