Neuroplasticity Program

The Neuroplasticity Program will focus on recovery approaches that modify synapses and circuits to enhance functional capacity. Neuroplasticity strategies will attempt to maximize function from existing cells as a critical component of promoting recovery from traumatic brain injury (TBI). Neuroplasticity studies will assist the development of neuroregenerative strategies since newly generated cells must establish the appropriate neuronal-glial interactions and/or integrate into the appropriate circuitry to contribute to the recovery of function.

Neuroplasticity Program Primary Goals:

  • Understand the biological consequences of traumatic brain injury (TBI) that impair central nervous system structural and functional repair.
  • Develop neurobiological approaches to aid recovery of neurological and cognitive function.
  • Characterize neural maps within the cerebral cortex and limbic system that are associated with the changes resulting from TBI and possibly altered with treatment.

Critical Issues for the Neuroplasticity Program:

  • Underlying predictors of impaired cognitive and sensory motor learning skills accompany many forms of TBI.
  • Environmental stress affects TBI symptomatology.
  • Diffuse axonal injury is associated with specific forms of TBI and can disrupt function throughout diverse neural circuits.
  • Glial and immune response in TBI can alter neuronal function.

Neuroplasticity Program Research Projects and Pilots

Click here to download project and pilots abstracts

Principal Investigator
Title
Christopher Baker
Neuroplasticity in human sensory cortex
Suzanne Bausch
Functional Maps of Neuronal and Glial Activity Following TBI, Stress and TBI
Leonardo Cohen
Motor learning after TBI
Zygmunt Galdzicki
Epigenetic factors and cortical map plasticity in the model of TBI
Jordan Grafman
Executive Function & Social Cognitive Adaptive Neuroplasticity
Luke Johnson
Differential Dysregulation of Subcortical Synaptic Plasticity after TBI
Sharon Juliano
Does TBI alter extrinsic and intrinsic connectivity in sensory cortex?
Michael Schell
Development of an organotypic brain slice model for shear injury
Eric Wassermann
The role of reward in human neuroplasticity
Xin Xiang
Retrograde injury signaling and cytoskeletal alterations in barrel cortex after TBI
Suzanne Bausch
NR2B-selective antagonist to ameliorate posttraumatic epileptogenesis and its associated comorbidities
Leonardo Cohen
Improving rehabilitation of Decision Making deficits after TBI
Sharon Juliano
Does training influence cortical remodeling after TBI?
 
 
Pilots and Fellowships
 
Eric Wassermann
Monitoring cognitive function in the prefrontal cortex functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)
Manoj Jaiswal
Balance between Inhibition and Excitation and the Vascular Trauma in Sensory Barrel Cortex after TBI
Aysha Keisler
Contributions of Cost and Reward Response to Fatigue
Jennifer McGuire
Propagated Deep Brain Neuronal Plasticity after Prefrontal Cortical Injury