Current Research

Currently there is limited very little understanding of why some stroke patients develop dystonic symptoms, usually appearing several months following after their stroke, and why this is more prevalent in children. This five 5–year CIHR– funded project focuses on the use of MEG and MRI brain imaging in children recovering from stroke who may develop hemidystonia or other motor disorders. We combine these neuroimaging measures with somatosensory and, motor tasks in children following their post-stroke to assess neuroplastic changes in specific brain regions that might may reveal the underlying causes of their dystonia. We also use cognitive assessments and inhibitory control tasks to assess the relationship between dystonia and poorer cognitive outcomes. Our hope is that these measures will reveal the underlying neural mechanisms of post-stroke motor disorders and provide better predictors of outcome recovery.

This NSERC Discovery grant funded project focuses on neural mechanisms underlying our ability to produce the complex speech sounds necessary for expressive language. Although hemispheric specialization for language is well established, the specific brain regions involved in the generation of speech sounds, and how these are related to speech sound disorders in adults and children is relatively understudied. Non-invasive brain imaging of speech related brain activity may provide more accurate diagnoses and treatment strategies in these populations.