Near-infrared spectroscopy and electroencephalography to assess and train cortical activation during motor tasks

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Abstract

Summary The primary overarching goals of our research program are to understand the mechanisms underlying motor incoordination in children and adults with childhood onset brain injuries and childhood onset peripheral injuries and to design more effective therapies to improve motor functioning. We have a strong interest in precise yet more broadly applicable and feasible methods to understand patterns of cortical activation during motor tasks and to utilize this knowledge to train individuals with neurological injuries (e.g. those with cerebral palsy) to perform motor tasks they are not able to perform, and hence cannot practice them on their own, or are unable to do very well without assistance. We believe that non-invasive technologies such as NIRS alone or in combination with EEG or other devices or instruments in our laboratory have great potential for advancing our research in these areas. Their lower cost, greater portability, and increased flexibility for studying a wider range of patients and tasks are major advantages over other existing brain imaging techniques such as MRI. Objective Neural imaging during functional tasks has become more portable and accessible than magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by utilizing non-invasive near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a means to isolate areas of brain activity by measuring blood flow dynamics and electroencephalography (EEG) to measure electrical activity on the cortical surface. Although use of these technologies for assessing cortical activation patterns is increasing, validation of these approaches, particularly in children with brain injuries such as cerebral palsy is in the early stages with few reports in the literature. The use of these in motor training paradigms for rehabilitation populations has not yet been reported. The objectives of this protocol are to: 1) systematically compare cortical activation patterns associated with specified motor and sensory tasks in healthy children and adults to those with unilateral or bilateral childhood-onset brain injury 2) extend the use of EEG in our laboratory across subject groups and tasks, when used alone or with NIRS; and 3) pilot the use of NIRS and or EEG as a brain biofeedback device in children with childhood-onset brain or peripheral injuries. The first two objectives are observational only, the third objective includes a pilot intervention. The results of this study are expected to increase knowledge of brain activation patterns across tasks and groups with and without brain injuries and to provide proof of concept and power estimates for future clinical studies with these technologies. A secondary question we would like to examine with these imaging technologies is the potential effect of motor impairments resulting from childhood-onset peripheral injuries (e.g. obstetrical brachial plexus palsy) on brain reorganization. Study population The childhood-onset brain injury group will consist of up to120 individuals (5 years and above) spanning the three objectives. The childhood-onset peripheral injury group will consist of up to 100 individuals within the same age-range spanning only Objectives 1 and 2. The control groups for each participant cohort will consist of up to 50 individuals spanning Objectives 1 and 2, for a total recruitment of up to 100 healthy volunteers within the same age range. Design Objective 1, the primary focus of this research protocol, is a cross-sectional analysis of multiple tasks across subject groups with and without motor impairments. Objective 2 is primarily a descriptive study, and Objective 3 is a pilot evaluation of the effectiveness of novel short term motor training program in children with childhood-onset brain injury targeted at improving brain activation patterns and motor performance. Outcome measures Objective 1 is the primary quantitative objective in this protocol, in which we will compare location, magnitude, volume and area of cortical activation across tasks and groups. Secondary outcomes include descriptive measures that will be used primarily to evaluate the two techniques or to monitor motion and muscle activation (EMG and ultrasound) data to help interpret task and group differences. Objective 3 will measure changes in brain activation and motor performance in childhood-onset brain injury before and after a short training program.