Laboratory for Rehabilitation Neuroscience
Abstract Precise motor control requires the ability to scale the parameters of movement. Theta oscillations across the cortex have been associated with changes in memory, attention, and sensorimotor processing. What has proven more elusive is pinpointing the region-specific frequency band oscillations that are associated with specific parameters of movement during the acceleration and deceleration phases. […]
Abstract Parkinson’s disease (PD) and the parkinsonian variant of multiple system atrophy (MSAp) are neurodegenerative disorders that can be difficult to differentiate clinically. This study provides the first characterization of the patterns of task-related functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) changes across the whole brain in MSAp. We used fMRI during a precision grip force task […]
Abstract Measures from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging reflect changes in the substantia nigra of Parkinson’s disease. It is the case, however, that partial volume effects from free-water can bias diffusion measurements. The bi-tensor diffusion model was introduced to quantify the contribution of free-water and eliminates its bias on estimations of tissue microstructure. Here, we test […]
Kurani et al. 2014 Neurobiology of Aging PDF Link Here Abstract: Previous research has indicated increased functional connectivity between subthalamic nucleus (STN) and sensorimotor cortex in off-medication Parkinson’s disease (PD) compared with control subjects. It is not clear if the increase in functional connectivity between STN and sensorimotor cortex occurs in de novo PD, which […]
Neely et al. (2014) Cerebral Cortex PDF Link Here Abstract It is well-established that during goal-directed motor tasks, patients with essential tremor have increased oscillations in the 0–3 and 3–8 Hz bands. It remains unclear if these increased oscillations relate to activity in specific brain regions. This study used task-based functional magnetic resonance imaging to […]
PLoS One. 2014 Feb 4;9(2):e88105. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0088105. eCollection 2014. Dose-response effect of isometric force production on the perception of pain. Misra G, Paris TA, Archer DB, Coombes SA. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24505397 Isometric contractions can influence the way that we perceive pain, but conclusions on the dose-response effect of force amplitude on pain perception are limited because previous […]
Misra and Coombes Human neuroimaging and virus-tracing studies in monkey predict that motor control and pain processes should overlap in anterior midcingulate cortex (aMCC), but there is currently no direct evidence that this is the case. We used a novel functional magnetic resonance imaging paradigm to examine brain activity while subjects performed a motor control […]
Work from our laboratory was highlighted by the Dana Foundation Read more about the article by Carl Sherman: https://www.dana.org/news/features/detail.aspx?id=44642
Movement Disorders Dopamine overdose hypothesis: Evidence and clinical implications. Vaillancourt DE, Schonfeld D, Kwak Y, Bohnen NI, Seidler R. About a half a century has passed since dopamine was identified as a neurotransmitter, and it has been several decades since it was established that people with Parkinson’s disease receive motor symptom relief from oral levodopa. […]
Effects of a Force Production Task and a Working Memory Task on Pain Perception Tiffany A. Paris, Gaurav Misra, Derek B. Archer, Stephen A. Coombes The goal in the current study was to examine the analgesic effects of a pinch grip-force production task and a working memory task when pain-eliciting thermal stimulation was delivered simultaneously […]