The Munroe-Meyer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center is conducting a $2.5 million study aimed at exploring how brain activity for children with cerebral palsy changes after learning a motor task.
Max Kurz, Ph.D., associate professor of physical therapy at the Munroe-Meyer Institute, is in the second year of a National Institutes of Health-funded study. He has partnered with Tony Wilson, Ph.D., associate professor, neurological sciences and vice chair of basic and translational research at UNMC.
They are using magnetoencephalography to explore how the brain is working to generate the movements involved in a novel interactive game in which participants use their lower extremities (ankles and/or knees) to animate a frog that wants to eat bugs on a pond.
Researchers are currently enrolling participants with cerebral palsy between the ages of 9 and 25.
The game is fun, and participants receive a photo of their brain, courtesy of Dr. Wilson’s imaging device (as well as compensation for their time). But the work itself is serious, examining therapeutic strategies that could aid youth and young adults with cerebral palsy.
“We’re trying to figure out ways we can better teach those kids to learn new motor skills or overcome the barriers they potentially have, to improve their activities of daily living,” Dr. Kurz said.
The study, IRB# 557-15-EP, will continue through June 2019.
For more information, call 402-559-1139 or mkurz@unmc.edu.