Dr. Lara Boyd and her lab are searching for ways to enhance brain function in people with neurologic damage using brain stimulation to enhance or suppress cortical activity.
The researchers in the Brain Behavior Laboratory (BBL) are focused on facilitating recovery in people with neurologic dysfunction. They have been investigating the use of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) in people with Stroke and Parkinson’s. In July of 2009 they published a highly accessed article showing that TMS over the dorsal premotor cortex paired with practice of a task facilitated of off-line learning of a motor skill. Off-line learning is documented by continued improvements in skill even after practice has stopped.
In another study published in Neurobiology of Motor Learning the lab used TMS to demonstrate the importance of the primary somatosensory cortex in motor learning. Inhibition of the sensory cortex by TMS impaired the magnitude of change associated with motor learning on a tracking task in which subjects used their arm to manipulate a joystick. These data imply that if diseases such as stroke alter sensation, motor learning will also be disrupted. The lab is now undertaking studies in which they are attempting exploit this knowledge by applying TMS to pre-excite the brains of people with Stroke or Parkinson’s disease immediately before rehabilitation or practice of a skilled motor behavior. For more information on these studies contact the BBL