Description:

Abstract:

Children with Cerebral Palsy (CP) usually suffer from impaired balance and gait. Our overall objective is to develop rehabilitation protocols to produce long-lasting improvement in balance and gait in this population. To achieve this goal, we have been investigating the long-lasting effects of two recently developed rehabilitation interventions (i.e., anti-gravity treadmill training and rTMS) on gait and balance impairments, and neurophysiological factors including parameters characterizing the structural and functional neuroplasticity of the brain, and neuromuscular abnormalities. Characterizing the recovery patterns of these neurophysiological factors, determining their contributions to balance and gait improvement, and predicting these recovery patterns prior to the administration of the interventions will enable us to individualize treatments. This will help clinicians to prescribe the most appropriate treatments for each CP child to produce persistent balance and gait improvement, minimize efforts and expenses, and maximize the effectiveness of the rehabilitation. In this talk, I will discuss some of our findings obtained from this ongoing study.

Speaker Info:

Mehdi M. Mirbagheri, PhD, is the associate professor in the Department of Medical Physics and Biomedical Engineering at Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS), and Adjunct Associate Professor at the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University. He is also the director of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation Research Center. Prior to TUMS, he was a Senior Research Scientist in the Sensory Motor Performance Program at RIC, an Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation at Northwestern University. He has extensive training and experience in biomedical engineering, neural engineering, and rehabilitation science. In addition to his engineering experience in signal processing, linear and nonlinear controls, and system identification techniques, he has an extensive clinical research background in the study of neuromuscular abnormality, particularly in the areas of stroke, spinal cord injury, and cerebral palsy. His main interests include the characterization of the neuromuscular properties of upper and lower extremities in normal and spastic subjects, the diagnosis, understanding, and treatment of spasticity, the relationship between abnormal neuromuscular properties and impaired voluntary movement, and the restoration of neuromuscular function in individuals with neurological disorders including stroke, SCI and subjects. He has been recently focused on characterizing the therapeutic effects of novel intervention on voluntary movement impairments to propose rehabilitation protocols based on the individualized treatments for people with neurological disorders, particularly in stroke subjects and CP children.