Soha Saleh, PhD

Headshot of Soha Saleh, PhD

Research Scientist

Department
Laboratory
Phone
973-324-3520
Email
ssaleh@kesslerfoundation.org

Sohah Saleh, PhD is a Research Scientist in the Center for Mobility and Rehabilitation Engineering at Kessler Foundation and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) at Rutgers – New Jersey Medical School. Dr. Saleh leads the Advanced Rehabilitation Neuroimaging Lab and is a principal investigator on several funded research studies, which investigates the underlying mechanisms of neuromuscular function, specifically neural networks involved in motor learning and control, and neuroplasticity after injury and in response to rehabilitation interventions.

Expertise
Neuroimaging
Signal Processing
Image Processing
Brain Connectivity
Electrophsiology
Neurorehabilitation
Education
PhD - Biomedical Engineering, New Jersey Institute of Technology and University of Medicine and Dentistry (Joint Program)
MS - Biomedical Engineering, Graduate and Professional, New Jersey Institute of Technology
BS - Computer and Communication Engineering, Undergraduate Graduate and Professional, American University of Science and Technology
Minor Degree - Biomedical Engineering, American University of Science and Technology
Honors
Outstanding Research Scholar Awarded By: Lebanese International University, 2015
Best Conference Paper Award Awarded By: 2015 Global Health Annual Meeting, 2015
Best paper Award Awarded By: Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 2014
Best paper award Awarded By: VIII International Conference on Disability, Virtual Reality and Associated Technologies, 2010
Outstanding Performance Award Awarded By: Dana Know Showcase Committee, NJIT, 2009
Best student capstone design project, Annual Engineering Exhibition, 2006
Research Interests

Dr. Saleh research focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms of motor learning, and on neuromodulation methods to re-normalize brain connectivity in individuals with motor deficits. Her long-term goal is to improve the outcomes of rehabilitation interventions. 

Combining Physical and Mental Practice for the Rehabilitation of Upper Extremity Movement Impairments Secondary to Traumatic Brain Injury: This study investigates the therapeutic benefit of combining mental practice with physical training for the recovery of hand function and its related effect on brain connectivity in TBI survivors.

Why is the dual-task cost of walking important in MS? An examination of ecological validity and cortical activations: A pilot study that uses functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to measure differences in cortical activation between persons with MS and healthy controls during walking, and performing only cognitive versus dual cognitive and walking tasks.

Role of Parietal Cortex in Walking, Cognitive Function, and Fatigue in Healthy and MS Participants: This study uses fNIRS and EEG to study fatigue during an active task in MS, and it will answer key questions about the role played by parietal cortex in fatigue and motor impairments in MS patients and in movement intention.

Publications

View a more comprehensive list of publications for Dr. Saleh on NCBI

View a more comprehensive list of publications for Dr. Saleh on Google Scholar

View a more comprehensive list of publications for Dr. Saleh on Research Gate

1. Saleh Soha, Sandroff Brian M, Vitiello Tyler, Owoeye Oyindamola, Hoxha Armand, Hake Patrick, Goverover Yael, Wylie Glenn, Yue Guang and DeLuca John (2018) The Role of Premotor Areas in Dual Tasking in Healthy Controls and Persons With Multiple Sclerosis: An fNIRS Imaging Study. Front. Behav. Neurosci. 12:296. doi: 10.3389/fnbeh.2018.00296 
2. Saleh Soha, Sandroff Brian M, Owoeye Oyindamola, Vitiello Tyler, Hoxha Armand, Yue Guang, DeLuca John. Supra-Spinal Modulation Of Walking In Healthy Individuals And Persons With Multiple Sclerosis: A fNIRS Mobile Imaging Study. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2018 Jul;2018:3156-3159. doi:10.1109/EMBC.2018.8513052. PubMed PMID: 30441064
3.Barrett AM, Boukrina O, Saleh S. Ventral attention and motor network connectivity is relevant to functional impairment in spatial neglect after right brain stroke. Brain Cogn. 2019 Feb;129:16-24. PubMed PMID: 30522777; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6377801. 
4. Saleh Soha, Yarossi Mathew, Manuweera Thushini, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Network Interactions Underlying Mirror Feedback in Stroke: A Dynamic Causal Modeling Study; Neuroimage:Clinical, 2017. 
5. Salhab Ghadir, Refai Sarraj Ahmad, Saleh Soha; Mirror Therapy Combined with Functional Electrical Stimulation for Rehabilitation of Stroke Survivor’s Ankle Dorsiflexion; Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc; 4699-4702, 2016.
6. Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Mirrored feedback in chronic stroke: recruitment and effective connectivity of ipsilesional sensorimotor networks; Neurorehabil Neural Repair; vol 28:344-54, 2014.
7. Khoshnejad Mina, Piché Mathieu, Saleh Soha, Duncan Gary, Rainville Pierre; Serial processing in primary and secondary somatosensory cortex: A DCM analysis of human fMRI data in response to innocuous and noxious electrical stimulation; Neurosci Lett; vol 8:577:83-8, 2014.
8. Tunik Eugene, Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei; Visuomotor discordance during visually-guided hand movement in virtual reality modulates sensorimotor cortical activity in healthy and hemiparetic subjects; IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng; vol 21:198-207, 2013.
9. Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Resting state functional connectivity and task-related effective connectivity changes after upper extremity rehabilitation: a pilot study; Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc; 4559-62, 2012.
10. Saleh Soha, Bagce Hamid, Qiu Qinyin, Fluet Gerard, Merians Alma, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Mechanisms of neural reorganization in chronic stroke subjects after virtual reality training; Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc; 8118-21, 2011. 
11. Bagce Hamid, Saleh Saleh, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Visuomotor gain distortion alters online motor performance and enhances primary motor cortex excitability in patients with stroke; Neuromodulation; vol 15:361-6, 2012.
12. Bagce Hamid, Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Visuomotor discordance in virtual reality: effects on online motor control; Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc; 7262-5, 2011.
13. Bagce Hamid, Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei, Krakauer John, Tunik Eugene; Corticospinal excitability is enhanced after visuomotor adaptation and depends on learning rather than performance or error; Journal of Neurophysiol; vol 109:1097-106, 2013.
14. Fluet Gerard, Merians Alma, Qiu Qinyin, Lafond Ian, Saleh Soha, Ruano Viviana, Delmonico Andrea, Adamovich Sergei; Robots integrated with virtual reality simulations for customized motor training in a person with upper extremity hemiparesis: a case study; J Neurol Phys Ther; vol 36:79-86, 2014.
15. Merians Alma, Fluet Gerard, Qiu Qinyin, Saleh Soha, Lafond Ian, Davidow Amy, Adamovich Sergei; Robotically facilitated virtual rehabilitation of arm transport integrated with finger movement in persons with hemiparesis; Neuroeng Rehabil; vol 16: 8-27, 2011.
16. Fluet Gerard, Qiu Qinyin, Kelly Donna, Parikh Heta, Ramirez Diego, Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei; Interfacing a haptic robotic system with complex virtual environments to treat impaired upper extremity motor function in children with cerebral palsy; Dev Neurorehabil; vol 13:335-45, 2010.
17. Qiu Qinyin, Ramirez Diego, Saleh Soha, Fluet Gerard, Parikh Heta, Kelly Donna, Adamovich Sergei; The New Jersey Institute of Technology Robot-Assisted Virtual Rehabilitation (NJIT-RAVR) system for children with cerebral palsy: a feasibility study; J Neuroeng Rehabil; vol 16:6-40, 2009.
18. Qiu Qinyin, Fluet Gerard, Saleh Saleh, Lafond Ian, Merians Alma, Adamovich Sergei; Integrated versus isolated training of the hemiparetic upper extremity in haptically rendered virtual environments; Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc; 2255-8, 2010.

B. Patents Held

“Finger Movement Evaluation Device to record finger movement at home and provide user with real-time visual feedback”, Lebanon Patent 10769, October 10, 2015, Soha Saleh

C. Abstracts
1. Saleh Soha, Mass Benjamin, Allexandre Didier, Hoxha Armand, Vitiello Tyler, Cunningham David, Yue Guang, Electrophysiology and neuroimaging to identify biomarkers of sensorimotor dysfunction after TBI. OHBM 2018, Singapore.
2. Saleh Soha, Allexandre Didier, Hoxha Armand, Yue Guang, Therapeutic and Neurophysiological Effect of Combined Physical and Mental practice in Breast Cancer Survivors. SFN 2018, San Diego, CA.
3. Hoxha Armand, Yue Guang, Vitiello Tyler, Saleh Soha, A Performance-based adaptive Rehabilitation Intervention to Train Bimanual Coordination in TBI survivors. . EMBC 2018, Honolulu, HI.
4. Dacosta-Aguayo Rosalia, Saleh Soha, Sandroff M Brian, Vitiello Tyler, Owoeye Oyindamola, Hacke Patrick, Goverover Yael, Wylie Glenn, Yue Guang, DeLuca John, Cost of Dual-tasking on task performance and cortical activations in persons with MS, 7th Annual Meeting of the International MS Cognition Society
5. Saleh Soha, Ramanujam Arvind, Momeni Kamyar, Hoxha Armand, Husain Syed Raza, Allexandre Didier, Yue Guang, Forrest Gail. Cortical Control of Walking With and Without Powered Exoskeleton Assistance: An EEG pilot study. 2017 International Symposium on Wearable Robotics and Rehabilitation (WeRob); 2017 November 05; Houston, TX, USA. 
6. Saleh Soha, Jiang Zhang, Cunningham David, Allexandre Didier, Yue Guang, Motor imagery versus congruent combination of motor imagery and action observation: fMRI pilot study, OHBM 2017 Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada.
7. Saleh Soha, Allexandre Didier, Maas Benjamin, Cunningham David, Hoxha Armand, Yue Guang, BOLD fMRI and Somatosensory Evoked Potential Response to Electrical Stimulation of Tibial Nerve: TBI pilot study. SFN 2017, Washington, DC.
8. Allexandre Didier, Hoxha Armand, Cunningham David, Saleh Soha, Easter Easter, Yue Guang, Investigating the corticomotor control of ankle plantarflexion in traumatic brain injury. SFN 2017, Washington, DC.
9. Ali Ali, Ahmad Hassan, Saleh Soha; A Windowing-based Entropy Comparison Method to Recognize a Brain Lesion in MRI images and Perform Automatic Lesion Segmentation; Presented at IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society 38th Annual International Conference, 2016. 
10. Manuweera Thushini, Yarossi Mathew, Saleh Soha,  Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Structural-Functional Interactions Underlying Mirror Feedback in Cortical and Non-Cortical Stroke; Presented at Society of Neuroscience 46th Annual meeting, 2016.
11. Manuweera Thushini, Saleh Soha, Yarossi Mathew, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Functional and Structural connectivity: relationship to mirror visual feedback in stroke patient; Presented at Society of Neuroscience 44th Annual meeting, 2014.
12. Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Changes in Effective Connectivity for Mirror Visual Feedback in Stroke Patients; Presented at Society of Neuroscience 42nd Annual meeting, 2012.
13. Tunik Eugene, Saleh Soha, Qiu Qinyin, Fluet Gerard, Merians Alma; fMRI effective connectivity and TMS mapping to characterize brain reorganization after stroke; Presented at Society of Neuroscience 42nd Annual meeting, 2012.
14. Saleh Soha, Bagce Hamid, Merians Alma, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Feedback Augmented in Virtual Reality Facilitates Ipsilesional Motor Cortex in Chronic Stroke;  Presented at Society of Neuroscience 41st Annual meeting, 2011.
15. Bagce Hamid, Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Effects of Visuomotor Discordance in Virtual Reality on Online Performance and Motor Cortex Excitability in Patients With Stroke; Presented at Society of Neuroscience 41st Annual meeting, 2011.
16. Saleh Soha, Bagce Hamid, Qiu Qinyin, Fluet Gerard, Merians Alma, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Strengthened Functional Connectivity in Bilateral Sensorimotor Cortex of Chronic Stroke Patients after Robot-Assisted Training in Virtual Reality: A Pilot Study; Presented at Society of Neuroscience 40th Annual meeting, 2010.
17. Bagce Hamid, Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei, Krakauer John, Tunik Eugene; Exaggeration of Visual Errors During Goal-Directed Movements Enhances Primary Motor Cortex Excitability in Healthy Subjects and Stroke Patients; Presented at Society of Neuroscience 40th Annual meeting, 2010.
18. Saleh Soha, Adamovich Sergei, Tunik Eugene; Effects of Virtual Reality-Altered Perception of Hand Movement on Sensorimotor Neural Circuits Measured with fMRI; Presented at Society of Neuroscience 39th Annual meeting, 2009.
19. Saleh Soha, Simone Lisa; Identifying Determinants of Hand Posture of Individuals With and Without Movement Disorders; Presented at Biomedical Engineering Society (BMES) Annual Meeting, 2007.

Complete List of Published Work in My Bibliography:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/myncbi/1-5-XD7ouBcQu/bibliography/42486858…

Research Gate profile
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Soha_Saleh 

Collaborating Studies

Cortical control of walking; brain plasticity following exoskeleton training in Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury: This study investigates the cortical modulation of muscle activation during walking, within-brain activation during, walking, and the re-organization of cortical control of walking after spinal cord injury and after intensive exoskeleton-assisted training. Funded by New Jersey Commission on Spinal Cord Injury Research.

Combining Physical and Mental Practice for the Rehabilitation of Upper Extremity Movement Impairments Secondary to Traumatic Brain Injury: This study investigates the therapeutic benefit of combining mental practice with physical training for the recovery of hand function and its related effect on brain connectivity in TBI survivors. Funded by New Jersey Commission on Brain Injury Research.

Role of Parietal Cortex in Walking, Cognitive Function, and Fatigue in Healthy and MS Participants: This study uses fNIRS and EEG to study fatigue during an active task in MS, and it will answer key questions about the role played by parietal cortex in fatigue and motor impairments in MS patients and in movement intention.Funded by Multiple Sclerosis Collaborative Network of NJ - National Multiple Sclerosis Society.

Studies