Madison Khan defends Master's thesis
The Sensorimotor Control and Learning Lab (SCiLL) congratulates Madison Khan on successfully defending their Master of Science thesis titled " Effects of Acute Aerobic Exercise on Motor Cortex Plasticity in Individuals With a Concussion History".
Madison's thesis research used a form of non-invasive brain stimulation known as paired associative stimulation (PAS). PAS is a method to induce brain reorganization, known as plasticity. It can be used as a marker of how responsive the brain is to changing itself to deal with new challenges, such as learning a new motor skill or adapting to injury. Madison employed PAS to determine whether an acute bout of aerobic exercise could enhance brain plasticity and offset persistent injury-related changes following concussion. Notably, an acute episode of aerobic exercise did enhance brain plasticity. But unfortunately, the enhanced brain plasticity was restricted to functional pathways in the brain that are not impacted by concussion. Therefore, an acute bout of aerobic exercise does not appear to offset the effect of concussion directly. The next step is to understand if increasing the plasticity in these non-concussion-affected functional pathways can indirectly offset the long-term effects of concussion.
The SCiLL lab wishes Madison all the best!
Congratulations, Madison.