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ONGOING RESEARCH:
 All current studies focus on developing therapies to aid in the recovery of function after stroke. Future studies will expand this focus to include spinal cord injury. Current studies include:
Sensory-driven motor recovery in poorly recovered subacute stroke patients:
The major goal of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of sustained sensory stimulation coupled with intensive task-oriented therapy to promote functional motor recovery in subacute stroke patients who have severe motor deficits. We also propose to use image-guided transcranial magnetic stimulation in an attempt to unveil further the mechanisms underlying improvement of hand function associated with PNS and intensive task-oriented therapy.
Enhancement of post-stroke neural plasticity by transcranial direct current stimulation:
the goal of this project is to evaluate the effectiveness of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) coupled with intensive task-oriented therapy in promoting functional motor recovery in chronic stroke patients who have severe motor deficits. Functional MRI, diffusion tensor imaging, and tramscranial magnetic stimulation motor maps will be acquired before and after intervention to evaluate cortical reorganization.
Enhancing cortical plasticity with nerve stimulation in stroke patients with severe motor deficit:
The major goal of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of sustained peripheral nerve stimulation (PNS) coupled with intensive task-oriented therapy to promote functional motor recovery in chronic stroke patients with severe motor deficits. Intensive training alone has not shown to be beneficial in patients with severe motor deficits, which suggests that training alone is unable to increase hand motor function and/or cortical plasticity in poorly recovered patients. We expect that the degree of behaviorally-measured recovery will be accompanied by an expansion of cortical motor areas as measured by transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Driving neuroplasticity with nerve stimulation and modified constraint-induced therapy:
This study evaluates the additive effects of sensory stimulation on constraint-induced therapy (CIT) to improve hand function in patients with stroke. For this study, only stroke patients with mild stroke will be recruited, since CIT involves not only task-oriented therapy of the affected side but also restraining the unaffected arm with a sling or glove for 90% of waking hours. We expect that the degree of behaviorally-measured recovery will be accompanied by an expansion of cortical motor areas as measured by transcranial magnetic stimulation.
For information on participating in any of these studies please contact Daniel Aken.
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