Kessler Foundation Scientist to Explore Effects of Transcutaneous Spinal Stimulation's Impact on Motor Recovery in Traumatic Brain Injury
$2.5 million federal grant will fund a four-year study led by Karen J. Nolan, PhD, focused on new technology to help individuals regain walking ability
East Hanover, NJ – October 30, 2024 – Karen J. Nolan, PhD, associate director of the Center for Mobility and Rehabilitation Engineering Research at Kessler Foundation, will initiate a four-year study funded by a $2.5 million grant from the Department of Defense’s Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP). The research focuses on the effects of spinal cord transcutaneous stimulation (scTS) combined with gait training to improve motor recovery in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI).
Dr. Nolan, who is also director of the Center’s Acquired Brain Injury Mobility Laboratory, will collaborate with Arun Jayaraman, PhD, of Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, to conduct clinical trials exploring how this innovative technology can facilitate motor recovery, enhance brain plasticity, and help individuals regain walking ability, ultimately supporting their reintegration into the community.
Traumatic brain injury (TBI) and its associated co-morbidities are a significant cause of disability for civilians, service members, and veterans. Despite many advances in TBI gait research in the last decade, current therapies fail to restore community walking in over two-thirds of the 2.8 million individuals diagnosed with TBI in the United States.
“The goal of this investigation is to complete a double-blind, placebo controlled, multi-site randomized clinical trial to explore the scTS plus gait training intervention,” explained Dr. Nolan. “We anticipate that using both actions together will facilitate adaptive brain plasticity more than gait training alone.”
Recent advances in rehabilitation have evaluated the combination of rehabilitative training with neuromodulation as a means to enhance the excitability of motor circuits and to increase training efficacy promoting motor recovery. “The spinal cord transcutaneous stimulation intervention is expected to improve the primary outcome measures that evaluate motor function and secondary outcomes that assess motor efficiency and improved neural networks,” said Dr. Nolan. “The success of this proposed clinical trial will result in improved clinical treatment strategies and decision-making for improved gait and functional recovery and military readiness of service members and veterans post-TBI.”
Funding
This work is supported by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs, endorsed by the Department of Defense, in the amount of $2,455,263, through the Traumatic Brain Injury and Psychological Health Research Program (TBIPHRP) under Award No. HT9425-24-1-1014. Opinions, interpretations, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs or the Department of Defense.
About Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs (CDMRP)
The CDMRP fills research gaps by funding high impact, high risk and high gain projects. While individual programs are unique in their focus, all programs managed by the CDMRP share the goal of advancing research and solutions towards cures or improvements in patient care or breakthrough technologies and resources for clinical benefit. The CDMRP strives to transform health care for service members and the American public through innovative and impactful research. Visit https://cdmrp.health.mil/tbiphrp/ for more information on CDMRP and TBIPHRP.
