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. This protocol involves the use of mobile brain imaging techniques for both of these goals. This past year, we have two major accomplishments: 1) we published two papers on EEG brain activation during a reach and transfer task comparing children with CP an age-matched cohort without CP; 2) we completed the development of a custom in home neurofeedback system and have started enrolling participants with CP. Objective 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) pilot the use of EEG as a brain biofeedback device in children with childhood-onset brain or peripheral injuries. The first objective is observational only, the second objective includes a pilot intervention. Study population The childhood-onset brain injury group will consist of up to 120 individuals (5 years and above) across all of the different studies included under this protocol. For the observational studies, we collect children with and without cerebral palsy because little is known about the brain activation during motor tasks in typically developing children, much less those with brain injuries. Results We are able to identify differences in both motor performance and brain activation during several motor tasks in cohorts with and without CP. EEG activation magnitudes are also correlated with motor skill; however, sometimes greater magnitude is associated with better skill whereas in some cases, the opposite is true. These relationships are affected by the amount of residual brain tissue in specific areas, the degree of cortical reorganization and abnormal intracortical mapping (e.g. recruiting more muscles and therefore brain areas than needed to perform a task) A second result is the development of an operational neurofeedback system that uses a person's own EEG signal when they attempt to move (dorsiflex their ankle) to activate a functional electrical stimulation device to assist with the movement and augment the sensory input to the sensorimotor pathways to strengthen them during training. The desired outcomes are improvement in selective control of ankle motion and/or speed, and evidence of this improved ankle control during walking. We have enrolled 3 participants to date.