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Alison Buick, Postgraduate Research Student

PhD student Alison BuickContact Details

Email: abuick01@qub.ac.uk

Office Room Number: 0G. 528

QUB Phone extension: 4871

Year: 3rd

Project Details

First Supervisor: Prof. Richard G. Carson

PhD Title: Novel interventions to promote neural plasticity and improve functional movement of the upper limbs following brain injury.

Summary of Project: The primary aim of my research is to investigate new techniques that can be used to rehabilitate stroke survivors with upper limb impairments,

I am particularly interested in the effect of pairing non-invasive behavioural (voluntary muscle contraction) and electrophysiological (peripheral nerve/muscle stimulation) methods in order to induce change in neural excitability and also potentially lead to functional gains in motor output.

Research Cluster:  EPIC

Research Interests

  • Motor control
  • Neurological disorders associated with ageing
  • Neuroplastic adaptation

Conferences

  • N. Ireland Neuroscience and Mental Health RRG Meeting, November 2009. Poster Prizewinner: Idiosyncratic cortical representations of the intrinsic hand muscles in skilled harpists.
  • 1st International Workshop on Synaptic Plasticity, Italy, 28th April-1st May. Poster presentation: Idiosyncratic cortical representations of the intrinsic hand muscles in skilled harpists.
  • British Psychological Society: NI division, May 2010. Poster presentation: Idiosyncratic cortical representations of the intrinsic hand muscles in skilled harpists.
  • Progress in Motor Control VIII (International Society of Motor Control), Ohio, USA, 21st -23rd July 2011. Poster presentation: The effect of voluntary ipsilateral contractions in an intervention using afferent electrical stimulation to promote neural plasticity.
  • Alberta Motor Control Meeting, Banff National Park, Canada, September 2010. Conference talk: Idiosyncratic cortical representations of the intrinsic hand muscles in skilled harpists.
  • Alberta Motor Control Meeting, Banff National Park, Canada, March 2011. Conference talk: Idiosyncratic cortical representations of the intrinsic hand muscles in skilled harpists.
  • Alberta Motor Control Meeting, Jasper National Park, Canada, September 2011. Conference talk: Accelerometer signals as an alternative measure of
    corticospinal excitability
  • Society for Neuroscience 2011, Washington D.C. 12th-16th November, 2011. Poster presentations: 1) Accelerometer signals provide a more linear measure of corticomotoneuronal excitability than MEPs in TMS. 2) The effects of focal contractions of the opposite limb on changes in corticospinal excitability induced by electrical afferent stimulation.