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The Brain Plasticity Lab at the University of Minnesota has an overall mission to study the brain's ability to reorganize. Plasticity, from the root 'plaistikos' (Greek): meaning to form, refers to the brain's ability to form new connections. This change can occur in either desirable or undesirable ways, such as after an injury, during rehabilitation and learning, or secondary to a disease. Directors | Dr. James Carey's research focuses on promoting recovery of motor function following stroke through up-regulation of function in surviving but dormant neural centers or through transference of function to new neural centers. Investigative and interventional techniques include motor learning (joint tracking) training, telerehabilitation, repetitive (r)TMS, and fMRI. | 
James R. Carey, PhD, PT | Dr. Teresa Kimberley's overall research goal is to understand and influence the extent of plastic changes in the cortex that occur during recovery from a movement impairment such as hemiparesis secondary to stroke or focal hand dystonia. Tools used in her lab include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), kinematic analysis, and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). | 
Teresa Jacobson Kimberley, PhD, PT | Dr. Bernadette Gillick's research interests are in cortical plasticity and recovery from neurologic insult in both adult and pediatric populations. | 
Bernadette Gillick, PhD, MS, PT |
LAB NEWS | | The Dystonia Coalition (http://rarediseasesnetwork.epi.usf.edu/dystonia/), a part of the NIH Office of Rare Diseases and the National Institute of Neurologic Diseases and Stroke, has recently awarded Dr. Teresa Jacobson Kimberley a career development award to study focal hand dystonia. Dr. Kimberley will be collaborating with Dr. Cathrin Buetefisch from Emory University. | | | Dr. Bernadette Gillick, a recent PhD graduate, has joined the faculty in the Program in Physical Therapy and will continue her work in pediatric hemiparesis. | | | Borich Named Neuromuscular Plasticity Scholar Michael Borich, PT, PhD Candidate. attended the University of Florida Neuromuscular Symposium as one of three graduate students named as Neuromuscular Plasticity Scholars in Mar 2010. He presented his research on the time course and neural substrates of goal-directed motor skill learning. | | | Dr. Teresa Kimberley was elected to the APTA Neurology Section Board of Directors. She will serve a 4 year term as the Director of Research. | | | Dr. Kimberley Recipient of "Golden Synapse Award" Dr. Teresa Kimberley, faculty member in the Physical Therapy Program, was awarded the "Golden Synapse Award" from the Neurology Section of the American Physical Therapy Association. This award is given to the best scientific paper published by the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy over the past year. Teresa received her award at the APTA Combined Sections meeting in Las Vegas in Feb 2009. | | | Dr. James Carey and Bernadette Gillick were featured in a Minneapolis-St Paul Star Tribune news story regarding their multi-center, cross-national research into the therapeutic effects of rTMS combined with constraint-induced therapy for pediatric hemiparesis. For more information on this study, please contact Maureen Boxrud, 612-626-6415. | | | Dr. James Carey, Prinicipal Investigator and Bernadette Gillick, PhD Candidate, were awarded a 2009-2011 NIH Challenge Grant for their research proposal, “Pediatric Hemiparesis: Synergistic Treatment using repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Constraint-Induced Therapy”. This grant incorporates a multi-center research design between the University of Minnesota and Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare. | | | PhD Candidate, Bernadette Gillick, MS, PT, was awarded the 2010-2011 and 2009-2010 Promotion of Doctoral Studies II scholarship from the Foundation for Physical Therapy. She was also awarded the 2010 and 2009 Student Scholarship from the American Academy of Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine. | | | PhD Student, Sharyl Samargia, MA CCC-SLP was awarded the 2009 Minnesota Speech-Language-Hearing Foundation Scholarship for her dissertation topic using TMS to investigate causes and potential interventions in dysphagia. Sharyl was one of 6 recipients awarded the scholarship at the annual MSHA convention on in Minneapolis. | | | PhD Candidate, Michael Borich, DPT, was awarded the 2009-2010 Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship for his dissertation topic "Enhancement of learning: Does sleep benefit motor skill memory consolidation?" | | | PhD Candidate, Huiqiong Deng, MD, MS, was awarded the Multimodal Neuroimaging Training Program Summer Workshop 2009 Fellowship, funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), (grants R90DA023420 and T90DA022761). | |
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