Author: Peter Schnellenberger

MRRI is pleased to announce that Amanda Rabinowitz, PhD, has been selected as this year’s recipient of the Joshua B. Cantor Scholar Award from the American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM). The Cantor Scholar Award was created in memory of the late Joshua B. Cantor, a board-certified rehabilitation psychologist and leader in the field of traumatic brain injury (TBI) research who was deeply involved in ACRM and the organization’s Brain Injury Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group. Dr. Cantor was committed to developing more effective treatments and helping people with TBI lead fuller lives through his research on issues surrounding sleep, fatigue, cognition, and emotion following TBI.

The Cantor Scholar Award recognizes one ACRM Brain Injury Interdisciplinary Special Interest Group member each year who has made substantial contributions to the field of brain injury neurorehabilitation. Each recipient’s research demonstrates the theoretical and methodological soundness, as well as the creativity in research design and/or intervention content that characterized the work of Dr. Cantor. The award will be presented at the ACRM Annual Conference in Dallas, TX, this fall.

Through the research she leads in the Brain Injury Neuropsychology Lab at MRRI, Dr. Rabinowitz has made important contributions to our understanding of chronic brain injury outcomes, spanning the spectrum of TBI severity. She has conducted important research on the psychosocial factors that can improve resilience after TBI, and her work leverages mobile technology and ecological momentary assessment to better assess outcomes and deliver interventions. Dr. Rabinowitz is also the Scientific Director of the Moss Traumatic Brain Injury Model System, and she continues to contribute to collaborative research on long-term brain injury outcomes. Like Dr. Cantor, Dr. Rabinowitz’s work is bringing hope, solace, and potential routes to better outcomes for people with traumatic brain injury.

A year ago, former MRRI Postdoctoral Fellow Solene Kalenine, PhD, received the exciting news that she had been selected as a laureate of the Fulbright-France program. This renowned program aims to foster dynamic and mutually beneficial collaborations between U.S. and French scholars, institutions, and societies by sponsoring mobility programs for students and researchers. Through receipt of this prestigious fellowship, Dr. Kalenine had an opportunity to come back to MRRI for a full year to conduct research with her former post-doctoral mentor Laurel Buxbaum, PsyD, as well as Erica Middleton, PhD, two MRRI scientists who are experts on treatment of action and language deficits after stroke.

Overall, Dr. Kalenine’s research program aims to understand the relationships between knowledge about objects and action. Recently, she developed a line of research that focuses on support images for word learning. In this research, she aims to evaluate whether images that convey motor cues may help people to learn and produce novel or uncommon words. Dr. Kalenine obtained promising results in her previous studies in this area, which were conducted in children and adults with neurotypical cognitive function.

In neurotypical adults, object nouns learned with an image showing the appropriate gesture for the object’s use (for example, a hand holding a hammer) were learned better in a naming task than nouns learned without the gesture cue. Based on this, Dr. Kalenine hypothesized that this type of action-related or motor cue might  also be helpful for people who have language deficits after stroke (aphasia). Re-learning words with images displaying motor cues could facilitate word retrieval and help people who had a stroke name objects more easily.

Twenty participants with post-stroke aphasia are being recruited from the MRRI Research Registry this year, with assistance from Shauna Zodrow, a research assistant. Participants are invited to attend six sessions during which they learn and practice a series of uncommon and difficult-to-retrieve object nouns.

The research team designed specific learning and practice exercises that involve objects, definitions, pictures, and the addition of gesture cues for half of the trained nouns. Dr. Kalenine and her collaborators will then evaluate the impact of training on how easily participants can retrieve these uncommon words in different tasks and situations. In participants who have completed the study to date, preliminary data are very encouraging. Participants all showed better recognition and naming of the object nouns after training, and gesture cues seem to lead to even faster word retrieval.

Drs. Kalenine, Buxbaum, and Middleton are looking forward to completing data collection and examining the full data set later this year. “Leading the Motor Word Learning project at MRRI has been an amazing experience. It has given me the chance to appreciate how a better understanding of basic cognitive processes may support the rehabilitation of cognitive deficits after stroke. Conversely, closely observing patients’ abilities and difficulties aids in thinking about how cognitive functions may be computed and interrelated in the healthy brain,” reflected Dr. Kalenine. She continued, “The translational approach adopted by the researchers at MRRI, beyond their specific area of expertise, has always been inspiring to me. Additionally, people have been very welcoming, and returning to MRRI after many years as a researcher in France felt like going back to my second home.”

Damage to a brain structure called the cerebellum causes a movement disorder called Ataxia. Derived from the Greek word for “lack of order,” Ataxia is marked by poor movement coordination. Ataxic movements have a “drunken” appearance, with lateral veering and oscillations. Many neurologic conditions such as stroke, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, and a host of genetic conditions can cause damage to the cerebellum, and the individuals affected often have disabling Ataxias that impair their balance, walking, arm movements, and speech. According to the U.S. National Ataxia Foundation, 15,000 – 20,000 people are estimated to have autosomal dominant genetic Spinocerebellar Ataxias in the United States, and tens of thousands more are affected by recessive and sporadic genetic ataxias, as well as other conditions that cause cerebellar damage.

There are no medications to treat Ataxia, leaving rehabilitation therapies like physical, occupational, and speech-language therapies as the only option for symptom management. However, rehabilitation outcomes are mixed in this population, with many individuals not benefiting from current intervention techniques. One reason for this may be that, in addition to its role in movement control, the cerebellum is critical to an important mechanism for learning new movement patterns. Many rehabilitation interventions try to train the brain to move the body in different ways to help compensate for neurologic conditions, and often, these techniques leverage the learning mechanism that depends on the cerebellum.

Research by Amanda Therrien, PhD, Director of the Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory at MRRI, has investigated whether a new training technique using binary reinforcement could help people with Ataxia improve their movement control. Using a combination of virtual reality and motion capture technology, binary reinforcement training aims to leverage a brain mechanism for learning new movements that does not depend as heavily on the cerebellum. Prior work from Dr. Therrien, published in the journals Brain and The Cerebellum, established that individuals with Ataxia can use binary reinforcement training to learn to adjust their arm movements and that it can be leveraged to help improve arm movement control. These findings emphasize that binary reinforcement training warrants further research to determine whether it can be applied to improve rehabilitation therapy for Ataxia more broadly.

One question that came out of Dr. Therrien’s previous work is related to the finding that, while most individuals with Ataxia were able to learn with binary reinforcement, a small percentage of study participants did not benefit from the training. The difference in training outcomes across individuals could not be explained by the severity or type of Ataxia, suggesting that the root cause of this variability in outcomes was more complex. Understanding the causes of variability in outcomes across individuals would advance our understanding of which individuals are most likely to benefit from binary reinforcement training, allowing streamlined screening for clinical trials as well as informing future work investigating whether the training technique can be modified to improve outcomes in individuals who respond poorly to the current protocol.

This past year, Dr. Therrien’s research group published a new study in the journal The Cerebellum that tested whether the historically underappreciated role of the cerebellum in movement perception could explain differences in learning across individuals. Movement perception relies heavily on a sense called proprioception (also called kinesthesia), which is how your brain knows where your body is in space when vision is absent. It is thanks to proprioception that you still know where your feet are, even though you may not be looking at them while reading this article. Proprioception is important for binary reinforcement training because the technique reduces visual information about movement outcomes to reduce dependence on cerebellum-dependent learning. Although cerebellar damage doesn’t impair primary proprioception (people with Ataxia have a normal sense of where their body is in space when they are not moving or if they are passively moved by another person or a device), it can interfere with proprioception when moving voluntarily. The degree to which cerebellar damage can interfere with the perception of voluntary movement varies across individuals and, like the response to binary reinforcement training, is not easily explained by Ataxia type or severity.

In Dr. Therrien’s recent study, a group of individuals with Ataxia performed a short binary reinforcement training task that required them to learn a new reaching movement. They then completed an assessment of their movement perception that tested the difference in proprioception between a condition in which they were passively moved by a robotic device and a condition in which they moved voluntarily. Dr. Therrien’s research group analyzed the relationship between the magnitude of learning achieved in the binary reinforcement task and performance in the movement perception assessment. The study team also included other variables in their analysis, such as the severity of participants’ arm movement impairment, their age, and their movement speed in the binary reinforcement task, to determine whether they also played a role in learning. The results showed a strong relationship in which a greater impairment in the perception of voluntary movement relative to the perception of passive movement was associated with a reduced response to binary reinforcement training. Replicating prior findings, none of the other variables tested exhibited relationships with the training outcome.

Overall, the findings suggest that tests of proprioception of voluntary movement may one day serve as a metric to predict which individuals with Ataxia might benefit from binary reinforcement training. This line of research in MRRI’s Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory is answering important questions that are critical for better understanding motor learning in order to develop more effective and more personalized treatments approaches for people with Ataxia.

Institute Scientists at MRRI, many of whom also hold faculty appointments within the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University, are engaged in important clinical trials testing novel treatment approaches to improve outcomes of patients after stroke, spinal cord injury, phantom pain after limb amputation, and other conditions. In celebration of National Clinical Trials Day on May 20th, MRRI is pleased to highlight current clinical trials and acknowledge the important contributions of volunteers who participate in these trials.

Assessing an Animal-Assisted Treatment Program for Adults with Aphasia: The Persons with Aphasia Training Dogs Program

Aphasia is an acquired language impairment characterized by difficulty with word retrieval, and in some cases, difficulty constructing grammatically complete sentences or with auditory comprehension. People living with aphasia report its consequences reach far beyond linguistic, including loss of identity, engagement, and quality of life. This clinical trial, led by MossRehab Aphasia Center Director Sharon M. Antonucci, PhD, CCC-SLP, will determine the feasibility and potential benefits of the Persons with Aphasia Training Dogs (PATD) Program. Founded in the Life Participation Approach to Aphasia, and working from a strength, rather than deficit, perspective, PATD harnesses the pragmatic skill of persons with aphasia, which is critical to working with dogs, and capitalizes on mechanisms of action for animal-assisted treatment, to ameliorate psychosocial consequences of aphasia. The study will determine whether persons with aphasia can implement positive reinforcement techniques to train dogs in basic obedience skills and define participant characteristics associated with positive response to the intervention. This trial is a crucial first step toward the long-term goal to augment the evidence base with well-specified animal-assisted intervention protocols that target the psychosocial consequences of aphasia.

Criterion-learning Based Naming Treatment in Aphasia

Aphasia most commonly occurs following a stroke. The overarching goal of a clinical trial led by Erica Middleton, PhD, is to develop and test early efficacy, efficiency, and the tolerability of a lexical treatment for aphasia in multiple-session regimens that are comprised of retrieval practice, distributed practice, and training dedicated to the elicitation of correct retrievals. The aim of this work is to add to and refine the evidence base for the implementation and optimization of these elements in the treatment of production and comprehension deficits in aphasia, and make important steps towards an ultimate goal of self-administered lexical treatment grounded in retrieval practice principles to supplement traditional speech-language therapy that is appropriate for People with Aphasia from a broad level of severity of lexical processing deficit in naming and/or comprehension. This project cumulatively builds on prior work to develop a theory of learning for lexical processing impairment in aphasia that aims to ultimately explain why and for whom familiar lexical treatments work, and how to maximize the benefits they confer.

Efficacy and Optimization of Speech Entrainment Practice for People with Aphasia

Research has shown that people with chronic aphasia can benefit from treatment, but significant communication challenges often persist after therapy concludes. A clinical trial led by Marja-Liisa Mailend, PhD, aims to test and develop a promising treatment technique, termed speech entrainment, to enhance treatment outcomes for people with aphasia. Speech entrainment refers to speaking in unison with a model speaker by imitating the model in real time. Research has shown that speech entrainment is a ground-breaking technique for prompting connected speech in people with aphasia. The immediate stimulation effect of speech entrainment is well-documented. The present clinical trial will expand on prior findings to determine the direct effect of speech entrainment practice on independent speech production after the entrainment support is removed. The research team will also identify conditions that enhance treatment benefits and examine participant profiles associated with a positive treatment response. Findings from this study will help inform and enhance rehabilitation for individuals with aphasia.

GetUp&Go: A Randomized Controlled Trial of an Intervention to Enhance Physical Activity After TBI

An active lifestyle is known to provide wide-ranging benefits, from lowering the risk of chronic diseases to fostering emotional resilience and mental well-being. For people with moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI), the challenge of meeting recommended activity levels is compounded by mobility limitations, pain, and the loss of social opportunities. The goal of this clinical trial, led by Amanda Rabinowitz, PhD, is to evaluate GetUp&Go, a program to promote increased physical activity in individuals after TBI. GetUp&Go is a remotely delivered program that includes one-on-one sessions with a therapist and a mobile health application (RehaBot). This clinical trial will determine whether the GetUp&Go program increases physical activity and improves mental and physical health in participants, compared to individuals who are put on a waitlist. The study team will also examine whether continued access to RehaBot helps maintain physical activity gains, as well as participant characteristics associated with treatment response. Their findings will inform the development of interventions to facilitate lasting increases in physical activity after TBI.

NIBS Therapy in Subacute Spinal Cord Injury (NIBS-SCI1)

Currently, no approved clinical therapies exist for repair of motor pathways following spinal cord injury (SCI) in humans, leaving permanent disability and devastating personal and socioeconomic cost. Promising findings from pre-clinical studies support that non-invasive brain stimulation (NIBS) may facilitate neural repair following spinal cord injury (SCI). Dylan Edwards, PhD, is leading a clinical trial to begin translating findings from pre-clinical studies to human motor deficits following SCI. This preliminary study will evaluate the effects of a novel non-invasive high-frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation protocol on arm motor function in people with cervical spinal cord injury. The treatment will involve daily transcranial magnetic stimulation sessions at the inpatient rehabilitation facility. Results from this study will establish the clinical effect size of the intervention, determine the safety and feasibility necessary for a subsequent controlled efficacy trial, and inform preclinical studies for the optimization of dosing.

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation for Post-stroke Motor Recovery (TRANSPORT 2)

Dr. Edwards is also site principal investigator for a multi-site clinical trial led by Wayne Feng, MD (Duke University). This clinical trial aims to determine if non-invasive brain stimulation at different dosage levels, combined with an efficacy-proven rehabilitation therapy, can improve arm function. The stimulation will be delivered via transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), which uses direct currents to stimulate specific parts of the brain affected by stroke. The adjunctive rehabilitation therapy that will be used is called “modified Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy” (mCIMT). During this therapy participants will wear a mitt on the hand of the arm that was not affected by a stroke and will have to use the weaker (more affected) arm. The study will test three different doses of brain stimulation in combination with mCIMT to determine which dose is most effective at improving arm function. Results from this research will help optimize the parameters for non-invasive brain stimulation treatments to enhance motor recovery after stroke.

Virtual Reality Treatment of Phantom Limb Pain

After amputation of an arm or leg, up to 90% of individuals experience a “phantom limb”, a phenomenon characterized by persistent feelings of the missing limb. Many people with a phantom limb experience intense pain in the missing limb that often responds poorly to medications or other interventions. An NIH-funded multi-site clinical trial (NCT05296265) led by Laurel Buxbaum, PsyD, and Branch Coslett, MD (Penn Medicine), is contrasting the efficacy of two virtual reality (VR) treatments for phantom leg pain: an Active VR treatment and a ‘Distractor’ treatment. In the Active VR treatment, participants play a series of novel VR games that provide a realistic rendering of both legs while participants are actively engaged in rewarding VR sports challenges, puzzles, and other immersive activities requiring leg movement. In the Distractor treatment, participants feel passively transported through an immersive VR experience that does not require leg movements. The study is providing important information on how the two types of VR interventions impact pain, psychological health, and quality of life for people with phantom limb pain to inform the optimal clinical treatment of this debilitating condition.

MRRI is pleased to announce the recent receipt of new grants from the Albert Einstein Society to support research studies led by two of the Institute’s postdoctoral fellows.

One of the grant awards will fund a project led by Anna Krason, PhD, with MRRI Institute Scientist Erica Middleton, PhD, as co-investigator. This study will examine the process of conflict adaptation in people with post-stroke aphasia, a language and communication disorder that affects their ability to produce and understand language. While language production deficits have been extensively studied, language comprehension deficits have received limited attention in research and treatment. Moreover, comprehension deficits are multi-determined in that difficulties in comprehension frequently stem from impairments in other modalities, including executive functions. Understanding the underlying mechanisms and factors involved in comprehension deficits is therefore crucial for effective interventions to improve language comprehension.

It has been established that cognitive control, an executive function that enables the detection, revision, and resolution of conflicts between mental representations, plays a pivotal role in language comprehension. Dr. Krason’s study will provide important preliminary knowledge regarding conflict adaptation and whether particular individuals with aphasia could benefit from this potential treatment approach. Specifically, the study will address the question of whether upregulating cognitive control can optimize comprehension in at least some people with aphasia. Drs. Krason and Middleton will also conduct thorough background testing, providing initial observations into linguistic, cognitive control, and neurophysiological traits of individuals who show (or do not show) conflict adaptation. Together, the findings from this study will lay the groundwork for future research to inform patient selection and the development of a new theory-grounded conflict adaptation training for neurorehabilitation of individuals with aphasia after stroke.

As principal investigator of a separate grant award, Simon Thibault, PhD, will work with MRRI Institute Scientist co-investigators Aaron Wong, PhD, and Laurel Buxbaum, PsyD, on a study to clarify the mechanism underlying errors commonly seen in the performance of naturalistic actions (i.e., preparing breakfast and packing a lunchbox) in people with left-hemisphere stroke. Impairments in the ability to perform activities of daily living, such as preparing a meal, have been widely reported after stroke. These impairments are unrelated to underlying motor impairments, such as hemiparesis, as they can be observed when individuals are required to only use their ipsilesional, non-paretic (less-affected) arm.

Although such errors are frequently attributed to an underlying sequencing deficit – i.e., an inability to represent sequential orderings of events – other findings suggest that individuals with left-hemisphere stroke may not be impaired at learning simple finger-tapping sequences. In contrast, individuals with left-hemisphere stroke also frequently exhibit limb apraxia (30-50% of individuals), a disorder characterized by slowed or failed retrieval of single tool-use actions (e.g., stirring with a spoon). To identify the mechanism giving rise to ordering errors in naturalistic actions, the study team will first examine the pattern of impairments across a series of sequencing tasks of increasing complexity. They will then correlate those impairments with performance in naturalistic actions within the same group of individuals with left-hemisphere stroke. This research will address a critical gap in the understanding of impairments in naturalistic actions in individuals following left-hemisphere stroke. It will also bring together two lines of study that have thus far largely been examined separately: naturalistic actions and action sequencing. Ultimately, research in this area will aid in developing rehabilitation techniques that better target the deficits underlying the inability to perform activities of daily living in individuals after stroke, particularly for those who have limb apraxia.

Research has been a part of Jennifer Derry’s life for many years, even before she was diagnosed with a stroke and aphasia, a condition that impacts a person’s ability to express and understand language.

When Jenn was in college, she participated in research studies in the areas of neuroscience, psychology, and cognition. Later, she worked for a company that did clinical research for mental health conditions, such as depression and bipolar disorder.

Following her stroke, Jenn spent about a month in inpatient rehabilitation at Moss. Afterwards, she was excited to have the opportunity to participate in research at MRRI. “My experience as a participant in MRRI research has been positive. Not only is it stimulating and exciting for me, but it helps to keep me sharp and keep learning,” she said.

Recently, Jenn participated in a study exploring an animal-assisted treatment program for individuals with aphasia called The Persons with Aphasia Training Dogs (PATD) Program. In this study, led by Sharon Antonucci, PhD, CCC-SLP, individuals with aphasia learn and implement positive reinforcement techniques to train dogs in basic obedience skills. The goal is to harness the strengths of individuals with aphasia and the benefits of human-animal interactions to target treatment of some of the psychosocial consequences of aphasia, such as social isolation and loss of self-confidence.

Jenn participated in the program with her dog Lola (pictured above). “We both benefited from it,” Jenn noted. “It helped me practice training with my dog and learn spoken commands. I really loved the study, and I felt proud when I was able to complete it, she continued.”

Beyond her involvement in research studies at MRRI, Jenn has been actively involved in activities at the MossRehab Aphasia Center. She discovered the Virtual Reta’s Games Group during the COVID-19 pandemic. “As horrible as covid was, there was also a bright side for me, because I was brought together with wonderful people and given the opportunity to meet virtually,” she explained.

Each week the Aphasia Center holds Reta’s Games Group meetings where participants engage in card games, board games, and discussions that allow people to practice their communication skills while having fun together. When reflecting on her experiences at these meetings, Jenn said, “I really enjoy the Virtual Reta’s Games Group. Everyone is very welcoming — the host Roberta Brooks, every person with aphasia, and specifically the facilitator Nikki Benson-Watlington who brings her happiness and support to others with her warm-heartedness, consideration, and positivity.”

Through activities at the MossRehab Aphasia Center and research studies at MRRI, Jenn has been able to connect with other individuals with aphasia and continue to make progress towards her communication goals. Jenn is also a co-founder of the Mid-Atlantic Aphasia Conference, an education and advocacy for people living with aphasia in the Tri-State area.  Her advice for others with aphasia speaks volumes about the value of these opportunities. “Do it all!!! Research and activities,” Jenn advised. She went on to explain that “You will be associating with other people who have aphasia. You will have fun and be involved with skilled professionals who are knowledgeable and caring.”

The MossRehab Aphasia Center prides itself on being a warm and welcoming place where people with aphasia and their friends and families can get information and support to help meet their long-term communication and psychosocial needs. The Aphasia Center also provides excellent opportunities for members to get involved in research and treatment programs. MRRI is grateful for the important contributions of research volunteers, and the Institute is honored to be a part of their journey of rehabilitation and recovery.

Researchers and clinicians at MRRI and Jefferson-Moss Magee Rehabilitation participated in a community event this past weekend. The event, “Movement and Memory: Navigating Parkinson’s and memory disorders”, was organized by the Delaware Valley Endeavor for Racial Solidarity in PD (Diversity PD). Diversity PD is a collaborative effort led by the Parkinson Council to provide education and resources for people of color. The purpose of this Saturday’s event was to provide support, education, and resources to individuals from underserved communities who are living with Parkinson’s disease. The event included education from local experts, open sharing sessions, audience Q&A, a performance by a member of the ParkinSINGERS Choir, and time to visit and chat with some local community organizations. The group from MRRI and Jefferson-Moss Magee Rehabilitation, which included Aaron Wong, PhD, Jonathan Wood, PhD, and Michele Aguado, PT, had the opportunity to share and promote the many resources offered here for those living with Parkinson’s disease.

In addition to physical, occupational, and speech therapies at various Jefferson-Moss-Magee Rehabilitation locations, resources here include:

• A weekly maintenance program designed to help individuals with PD stay active and continue exercising after a bout of therapy is complete.
• The Klein Family Parkinson’s Rehabilitation Center Clinic, a free multidisciplinary clinic designed to provide recommendations to address goals that might otherwise be challenging to recognize or achieve by one discipline alone, and to create a space where people with Parkinson’s disease and caregivers can ask questions and learn more about what to expect with this disorder
• A support group for both individuals living with Parkinson’s disease and their caregivers.
• Information about the research studies currently being conducted as well as opportunities to participant in future research by signing up for the MRRI Research Registry.

Participating in the event is part of an ongoing effort by researchers at MRRI to diversify the individuals who participate in the Institute’s research studies, particularly those living with Parkinson’s disease. This is important because individuals who are included in research studies should represent the community of individuals living with the disease so that research findings are applicable to all individuals with the disease. MRRI scientists were honored and excited to be a part of this event and look forward to future opportunities to share these outstanding clinical and research resources with the community.

The American Academy of Neurology recently held its 76th Annual Meeting, a hybrid event held in person in Denver, Colorado, with online content available to remote attendees as well. Dylan Edwards, PhD, was among six speakers invited to present in the “Neurology Year in Review” plenary session on April 18th. The speakers discussed the latest developments in a broad range of clinically relevant topics: Car-T cell therapy, gene transfer therapy, migraine management, Long-COVID and the autonomic nervous system, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and the future of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

In his presentation on TMS, Dr. Edwards highlighted recent technical advances that have resulted in improved electrical field modeling for the targeting of stimulation. He described how TMS can be now used to localize muscle representations on the primary motor cortex in three dimensions for an individual based on their own cortical anatomy.¹ This approach is more accurate and personalized compared to prior targeting methods where an estimate of the center of the TMS coil and the electric field would be generated and mapped based on the depth of stimulation in two dimensions. This is a transformative advance, but it requires substantial analysis and computation. which can take several hours or more.

To overcome computational barriers to make the approach more clinically relevant, Dr. Edwards explained how researchers developed a fast, accurate TMS solver that can now determine TMS electrical fields for any coil type in near-real time.² This represents a substantial breakthrough that could allow clinicians to have an estimate of electric field distribution in a region of interest in a matter of seconds. Other important developments in the field that Dr. Edwards featured were the use of robotic arms for automated precision-targeting (including his own research being conducted at MRRI), as well as emerging technology that shows an alternative approach with static multi-coil arrays.^3-4

Dr. Edwards also shared progress in research using repetitive TMS (rTMS) for neuromodulation to facilitate motor recovery after stroke and spinal cord injury. Clinical and translational studies using TMS are showing benefits for recovery of motor function when treatment is started early in post-stroke recovery.⁵ Future work in this area will continue to pursue individualized targeting and parameter selection based on contemporary theory, potentially selecting targets based on neural networks.

Dr. Edwards finished his presentation by sharing research that he and colleagues have been working on using rTMS to facilitate regeneration and recovery after spinal cord injury. Following promising results in animal models,⁶ Dr. Edwards is now translating this rTMS protocol in a phase I randomized controlled trial in patients with spinal cord injury.

Substantial headway has been made in TMS research within the past year, and this continues to be a growing field of study with broad potential clinical relevance spanning diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic applications. Dr. Edwards’ presentation was well-received by a large audience attending this session. The American Academy of Neurology’s Annual Meeting is the largest international meeting of neurologists and neuroscience professionals in the world, and the selection of TMS as one of the six hot topics to feature in this year’s “Neurology Year in Review” plenary session further attests to the significance of this technology in neurology and beyond.

 

References:

1) Weise, et al., Nature Protocols, 2023

2) Makaroff, et al., Scientific Reports, 2023

3) Navarro de Lara et al., NeuroImage, 2021

4) Daneshszand et al., Brain Stimulation, 2023

5) Vink et al., Stroke, 2023

6) Boato et al., Science Translational Medicine, 2023

Photos courtesy of the American Academy of Neurology

Led by Amanda Therrien, PhD, the Sensorimotor Learning Laboratory at MRRI conducts research to improve motor rehabilitation protocols for individuals with neurological disorders by enhancing our understanding of the precise sensory and motor control mechanisms that underlie their behavioral impairments. MRRI is pleased to welcome Alyssa Eyssalenne to the Institute in her new role as a Research Assistant working with Dr. Therrien.

Ms. Eyssalenne graduated from Temple University in 2021 with a B.S. in Neuroscience with a focus in Systems, Behavior, and Plasticity. During her undergraduate career, Ms. Eyssalenne interned at the Children and Adolescent Anxiety Disorder Clinic (CAADC) at Temple Health where she focused on data input and consolidation for clinic patients in behavioral therapy trials. As a student, Ms. Eyssalenne was also an executive member of the student organization for Caribbean awareness and the By Any Means Necessary dance company, from which she hopes to carry over her teamwork/team building and adaptability skills.

Prior to joining the MRRI team, Ms. Eyssalenne was a formulations technician at Charles River Laboratories in Horsham, PA. There, she performed basic to advanced drug formulation techniques for preclinical safety assessment in animal and in-vitro study models for review in reproductive, juvenile, and developmental toxicology. Ms. Eyssalenne became the technical team lead and further developed her regulatory and quality assurance skills as she performed preliminary data quality control, addressed study audits and deviations, and contributed to protocol/standard operating procedure development and review. After more than two years at Charles River Labs, Ms. Eyssalenne is eager to apply and shift her knowledge base to human research/trials as well as be a part of the clinical side of research.

At MRRI, Ms. Eyssalenne will be working with Dr. Therrien on her research in sensorimotor learning, with a focus on proprioception and adaptation learning in the upper limbs. Ms. Eyssalenne’s primary role in lab will be in conducting participant trials using equipment, such as the Kinarm Exoskeleton Robot.

In the serene surroundings of Elkins Park, Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital stands as more than a medical facility; it is a symbol of hope and healing, profoundly influenced by the compassionate spirit of Nancy Wachtel Shrier. Her connection to this institution was not just philanthropic—it was a vital part of her very being, a manifestation of her unwavering commitment to bettering the lives of others. This tribute, drawn from the rich tapestry of memories shared by her family, including her husband, Marc, and children, Peter Shrier and Lee Yonish, celebrates a woman whose empathy and dedication have indelibly shaped the essence of these institutions.

Marc Shrier’s voice softens with affection as he recalls his wife’s deep involvement with the institution. “Nancy was a whirlwind of activity at Moss, always looking for ways to contribute more meaningfully,” he says. This passion wasn’t solitary; it enveloped Marc, transforming him from a patient to an ardent supporter. Their collaborative efforts, notably their substantial contributions to Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute and the Shrier Family Topics in Rehabilitation Science Lecture Series, are now cornerstones of the institution.

Their children paint a vivid picture of a life exemplified by generosity and empathy. “Our parents cared deeply about a range of causes, but it was always done with so much love,” Lee reflects. Peter adds, “They have giant hearts, and that was evident in everything they did.” For them, Nancy was not just a mother but an exemplar of kindness, her life a lesson in the power of giving.

Nancy’s commitment to Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute and Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation – Elkins Park was characterized by her visionary approach and tireless dedication. The pinnacle of her contributions was the establishment of the Directorship in her name, a testament to her profound impact on the field of rehabilitation science. Dylan J. Edwards, PhD, the inaugural holder of this directorship, exemplifies the values and vision Nancy cherished, particularly in advancing rehabilitation research.

Her involvement went far beyond financial support; Nancy was a catalyst for innovation and growth. The Shrier Family Topics in Rehabilitation Science Lecture Series, an initiative she spearheaded, has become a tool for disseminating knowledge and fostering collaboration among experts worldwide. This series, along with her other endeavors, has significantly propelled the Institute’s standing in the global rehabilitation community.

Moreover, Nancy’s support was instrumental in developing programs that emphasized the importance of art and sports in rehabilitation. Her enthusiasm for All About Moss Through the Arts and the wheelchair tennis tournament at Penn reflected her belief in the resilience and capabilities of individuals, regardless of their physical challenges.

The legacy of Nancy within the walls of Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation Hospital – Elkins Park and Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute is both profound and enduring. The establishment of the Directorship in her name stands as a poignant homage to her relentless pursuit of progress in rehabilitation science. This directorship not only honors her memory but also serves as a beacon, guiding future innovations in the field.

Her children reflect on the enduring impact of these tributes. Lee observes, “The Directorship in our mother’s name is more than an honor; it’s a continuation of her life’s work, inspiring others to follow in her footsteps.” Peter adds, “It’s a living testament to her dedication and passion.”

Additionally, the staff and patients of the hospital often speak of Nancy’s influence. Rejoice Jula, the Director of Development, reminisces about Nancy’s readiness to assist in any capacity, underlining her indomitable spirit and dedication to service. These tributes collectively paint a picture of a woman whose life was defined by generosity, innovation, and an unwavering commitment to help others.

Nancy’s story is not just one of personal achievement but a narrative of unwavering compassion and philanthropy. Her profound dedication to Jefferson Moss-Magee Rehabilitation – Elkins Park and Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute has set a benchmark for future rehabilitation philanthropy. Her legacy, echoed in the corridors of these institutions and in the hearts of those she touched, serves as a powerful reminder of the transformative impact one individual can have. Nancy’s memory, defined by purpose and generosity, continues to inspire, and guide us in our efforts to support and uplift those in need.