News and Events

January 2005

Lab Receives Two NIH Grants

Stephen Page, Ph.D., NmRRL Director, has been awarded two research grants by the National Instiutes of Health (NIH). The work builds on Page's previous work in mental practice, which has shown that mental practice of motor skills substantially improves stroke patients' motor function levels.

The first grant, entitled "Mental Practice Dosing and Mechanisms in Stroke," will provide all subjects with stroke 10 weeks of free therapy for their affected arms. The 2-year study will couple this physical therapy with doses of mental practice, in which patients will cognitively rehearse the skills that they are physically practicing in therapy. Notes Page, "We know from our pilot work that mental practice works; we just don't know if we can get away with less of it, or need more of it, to see an optimal effect. In this study, subjects will receive either a 1/2 hour, hour, or 2 hours of mental practice as a complement to physical therapy. "We will examine not only the effects of these different regimens on motor function, but also the neural effects using fMRI. This is huge, as it could reveal whether fMRI is a biomarker for dosing of therapies, and because it is one of the first studies using fMRI in a dosing study."

Dr. Page also received a 5-year award from NIH that, like the above study, will begin in April 2005. Whereas the above study examined mental practice dosing in chronic stroke, though, the 5-year study examines mental practice mechanisms and efficacy in subacute stroke. "We believe that greater potential for neural plasticity actually exists in the subacute phase, or the phase between 3 months and 1 year after stroke." This stuy will be the first randomized controlled study to examine this in detail, and the first to apply fMRI to examine mental practice neural effects in this group."

Both studies are slated to start in April, 2005, and both offer free therapy to eligible subjects. For more information, contact Dr. Page at 513-558-2754 or at Stephen.Page@uc.edu.