Diagnostics and recovery of neuromotor function following a traffic accident in children: study of neural structure-function relations with respect to movement coordination.

In this project the impairments of gross and fine motor skills is studied in children recovering from a brain trauma caused by an accident. A broad-spectrum methodology is used, consisting of behavioural / kinematic and neuroscientific analysis for the study of structural and functional changes in the brain following a traumatic injury, i.e., functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) . Our primary objective is to provide an explanation, based on diffuse white matter damage, for the increased (compensatory) brain activity and for the observed motor deficits. The project consists of 3 phases. In the first phase a measure of the integrity of white matter is related to the quality of balance control, as determined by a high-quality force platform. In the second phase, the integrity of the white matter structures and functional brain activity are studied in relation to the execution of unimanual and bimanual eye-hand coordination tasks. Strong relations between brain structure, function and motor deficits are expected. In the third phase, we study whether structural and functional neuroplastic changes can be triggered as a result of prolonged training in children with traumatic brain injuries. We expect an important contribution in revealing structure-function-behavioural relations to support the development of new therapeutic interventions.

Keywords:Postural balance, Motor skills, Magnetic resonance imaging, Diffuse axonal injury, Traumatic brain injury

Disciplines:Animal experimental and comparative psychology, Applied psychology, Human experimental psychology, Neurosciences, Biological and physiological psychology, Cognitive science and intelligent systems, Developmental psychology and ageing, Orthopaedics