Hotz Boendermaker
Fakultäten » Medizinische Fakultät » Universitätsklinik Balgrist und Schweizerisches Paraplegikerzentrum » Paraplegikerzentrum » Prof. Dr. Volker Dietz (emeritiert) » Hotz Boendermaker
Completed research project
| Title / Titel | Simple and complex foot movement representation in the human brain and its plasticity in spinal cord injured patients | ||||||
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| Abstract (PDF, 14 KB) | |||||||
| Summary / Zusammenfassung | Daily activities and quality of life depend greatly on the integrity of the locomotor system. Few studies looked into the central representation of foot movements with functional imaging and, up to now, no complex foot task has been investigated. To address this shortcoming a simple and a complex foot task have been designed and already tested behaviorally in healthy subjects and spinal cord injured (SCI) patients. In this application we propose two sets of functional brain imaging and behavioural experiments. First, we address the role of the parietal lobes in the sensorimotor integration of foot movements in healthy subjects and its reorganisation in SCI patients. Second, we investigate the influence of movement complexity on brain activation patterns, exploring the effect of speed, force and visual feedback in the same populations. The results will increase our knowledge on foot representations and their reorganization in SCI patients, and eventually improve therapeutic strategies. | ||||||
| Keywords / Suchbegriffe | foot movement, posterior parietal cortex, spinal cord injury, plasticity, fmri | ||||||
| Project leadership and contacts / Projektleitung und Kontakte |
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| Funding source(s) / Unterstützt durch |
SNF (Personen- und Projektförderung) |
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| Duration of Project / Projektdauer | Jan 2007 to Dec 2008 |