Advanced Collaborators Workshop: Operant Conditioning of Upper Extremity Muscle Responses in Stroke

Advanced Collaborators Workshop - Operant Conditioning of Upper Extremity Muscle Responses in Stroke

The NM4R’s Advanced Collaborators Workshop is aimed to meet the specific needs of a group of clinicians/investigators who share similar research interests.

This workshop (December 16-17, 2019) is designed to meet the needs of investigators who are conducting or developing upper extremity operant conditioning studies in people after stroke in their own labs, and to develop strategies to standardize principle methods across studies and labs. Attendees are clinical investigators who have received pilot funding from the NC NM4R or are preparing grant applications, using upper extremity operant conditioning protocols.

Objectives

• Acquire the methodological principles of operant conditioning of EMG evoked potentials in upper extremity muscles.
• Develop the fundamentals of operant conditioning of EMG evoked potentials in people after stroke.
• Understand the techniques and methodological limitations of the H-reflex recruitment curve measurements in the flexor carpi radialis and extensor carpi radialis muscles.
• Share and discuss the details of currently NM4R-funded or developing studies of upper extremity operant conditioning.
• Receive feedback on the study design from the upper extremity rehabilitation research specialists.
• Hands-on practice of the flexor carpi radialis H-reflex and the extensor carpi radialis TMS-MEP operant conditioning (operant conditioning of motor evoked potential (MEP) to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) session protocols in healthy controls and stroke participants
• Develop standardized procedures for reproducibility of H-reflex and MEP measurements in the upper extremity across different studies and research labs.

Activities/Methods

• Practicing running the flexor carpi radialis H-reflex operant conditioning sessions in different individuals with and without stroke (hands-on experiment).
• Learning to run the extensor carpi radialis MEP operant conditioning session in individuals with and without stroke (demonstration, hands-on experiment).
• Developing standardized procedures for reproducibility of H-reflex and MEP measurements in the upper extremity muscles across different studies and research labs
  • Discussion of methods currently used by each laboratory (roundtable discussion)
  • Creation of splints for session-to-session reproducibility of electrode placement on individual participants (hands-on experiment)
  • Examining the effects of arm positioning on H-reflex and M-wave recruitment curve measurements and conditioning procedures (hands-on experiment)

 

Agenda

Sunday, December 15, 2019

6:00 pm                       Dinner at Edmund’s Oast

 

Monday, December 16, 2019

77 President Street

8:30-9:00 am              Introduction

9:00-10:30 am            Operant conditioning protocol and EPOCS overview, H-reflex and MEP-conditioning practice

10:30-11:30 am          Splinting

11:30 am-1:00 pm      Mini-presentations/Lunch with Michelle Woodbury, PhD, OTR/L

1:00-3:00 pm              FCR H-reflex conditioning

3:00-5:00 pm              Post-experiment Discussion/FCR H-reflex conditioning practice

6:30 pm                       Dinner at Fleet Landing

 

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

77 President Street

8:30-10:00 am            ECR MEP-conditioning practice

10:00-12:00 pm          ECR MEP and FCR H-reflex conditioning

12:00-1:30 pm            Lunch at Fuel

1:30-3:30 pm              ECR MEP and FCR H-reflex conditioning

3:30-4:30 pm              Wrap-up Discussion