Event Date
⭐️ Presented by the Center for the Advancement of Multicultural Perspectives on Science (CAMPOS)
Wilsaan M. Joiner
Professor
Chancellor’s Fellow
Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, College of Biological Sciences
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, School of Medicine
Neurology, School of Medicine
Center for Neuroengineering
“From Muscle to the Brain: Linking Cortical Representation of Hand Grasps in Children with Congenital Unilateral Below-Elbow Limb Deficiency”
I will describe the results from our pilot study which examines the neural basis of motor control in unilateral congenital below-the-elbow deficiency or UCBED children (affecting approximately 3 per 100,000 births). This two-year project aims to recruit a cohort of 8-20 year-old children with UCBED to execute five hand grasps representative of everyday activities (pinch, power, point, wrist extension, and wrist flexion) with either their missing hand or their typically developed hand. In our preliminary study, participants first performed these movements outside the MRI scanner to obtain measures of their motor control with ultrasound imaging, and then inside the scanner to identify the neural basis of this control. We specifically sought to compare the neural basis of motor control across the affected and unaffected limb. Our preliminary results demonstrate contralateral sensorimotor neural activation across the unaffected and affected limb. In addition, we found frontoparietal and middle temporal neural activation on the affected side suggesting greater processing of action and hand gesture meaning for these movements. Overall, our long-term goal is to use this knowledge for the development of next-generation prosthetic devices for this clinical population.
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Upcoming Research Colloquia
February
4 - Antonio Serapio-Palacios, Microbiology and Molecular Genetics
18 - Charles Wilkes III, Schol of Education
March
4 - Madeline Nieves-Cintron, Pharmacology
April
15 - Anya Brown, Evolution and Ecology
29 - Jairo Fúquene-Patiño, Statistics
May
13 - María Maldonado, Plant Biology
27 - Fernanda Valdovinos, Environmental Science and Policy