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Projects 2006

Sponsoring Laboratory/Section:

Human Motor Control Section, Pediatric Movement Disorders Unit
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS)

Section Chief:

Mark Hallett, M.D.

Mentor:

Marjorie Garvey, M.D.

Contact Information:

e-mail: GarveyM@mail.nih.gov
phone: (301) 402-7967
fax: (301) 480-2286

Laboratory Description and Project area:

The Human Motor Control Section conducts studies on the neurophysiology of motor control in both adults and children. A particular focus of the mentors for this project is to use biomedical techniques to study the neural control of fine motor skills in children. Hand dexterity depends on the presence of intact cortico-cortical (within the brain) and cortico-muscular connections (between the brain and muscles). These connections are abnormal in children who have suffered an injury to the brain. These abnormalities have wide-ranging adverse effects, including poor school performance. Understanding the abnormalities of the underlying neural connections may help us devise better treatments for these children.

This project aims to develop biomedical methods to delineate these connections in healthy children and in children with cerebral palsy. These methods use mathematical models to measure cortico-cortical and cortico-muscular coherence using electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG).

This summer internship will allow the student to:

• learn the basics of motor control physiology, with a particular emphasis on assessing motor control in children
• become familiar with the use of biomedical techniques as applied to children, including electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography EMG) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
• develop new methods to assess EEG-EMG and EMG-EMG coherence in children.

The intern will work closely with the mentors and will be able to take part in all aspects of the project, including data acquisition, data analysis and development of the new paradigms to study coherence.