Harnessing Neuroplasticity to Enhance Functional Recovery During Chronic Recovery From Upper Extremity Nerve Repair

Summary

This study adopts a strategy that has arisen from basic neuroscience research on facilitating adaptive brain plasticity and applies this to rehabilitation to improve functional recovery in peripheral nervous system injuries (including hand transplantation, hand replantation, and surgically repaired upper extremity nerve injuries). The technique involves combining behavioral training with transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS)-a non-invasive form of brain stimulation capable of facilitating adaptive changes in brain organization.

Detailed Description

This study will implement and evaluate an innovative program of post hand transplant rehabilitation; one that harnesses recent discoveries in neuroscience to facilitate long-term, experience-dependent adaptations within the brain's sensory and motor systems. The current approach to rehabilitation of function in allogeneic hand transplant recipients is largely the same as standard-of-care following hand replantation (re-attachment) and peripheral nerve repairs. This involves an eclectic combination of traditional therapies. In seeking to improve on this approach, there is potentially much to be gained by considering evidence that limb amputation not only impacts the peripheral nervous system but also the brain, and tailoring interventions accordingly.

Eligibility Criteria

Interventions