Jessica Cassidy
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, NC·Neuroscience
Stroke is a leading cause of disability worldwide, and many survivors have lasting trouble using their arm and hand. One reason recovery varies so much may be how well the brain and muscles still communicate.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
Physiology
- Topics
stroke
motor recovery
upper extremity
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2027
What they work on
- Test whether beta-burst repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), magnetic pulses timed to the brain's 13–30 Hz movement rhythm, increases corticomuscular coherence more at a site inside the brain-muscle circuit than at a decoy site, in adults with chronic stroke.
- Determine how damage to the corticospinal tract, the main brain-to-spinal-cord pathway, measured with TMS, affects how well beta-burst rTMS works, to begin identifying likely responders and non-responders.
- Assess whether brief beta-burst rTMS given just before a precision grip task with the affected hand improves reaction time and grip precision, in a randomized cross-over study of 20 people with stroke.
More about the research
Brain and muscle activity can be recorded as rhythmic electrical signals. When the two rhythms move in step, it suggests a working connection. Researchers measure this with corticomuscular coherence (CMC). The team previously used electroencephalography (EEG), which records brain activity through scalp electrodes, in 30 people with stroke. That work suggested that CMC in the beta frequency band (13–30 Hz), a rhythm tied to movement, marks both motor function and recovery after stroke. The long-term goal is precision rehabilitation: treatments chosen to fit each person's own brain circuits.
Why it matters
People recovering from stroke often have lasting weakness and poor control in one arm and hand. If boosting the brain-to-muscle beta rhythm proves to strengthen this circuit, it could become a target for stimulation-based rehabilitation. Measures of corticospinal damage might also help clinicians predict who is likely to respond, supporting rehabilitation tailored to each patient's own neural circuitry.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Alexandria Zakrzewski
Kansas State University, KS·Psychology
Establish a transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and repetitive TMS suite combined with EEG, enabling virtual-lesion and neuromodulation experiments that causally test cognitive and neural plasticity.
Chris Gregory
Medical University of South Carolina, SC·Medicine & Clinical Research
Compare the effects of combined aerobic exercise and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS), a noninvasive brain stimulation method, versus either treatment alone on depressive symptoms in people with post-stroke depression.
Desmond Oathes
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Neuroscience
Establish that TMS targeted with resting-state fMRI connectivity modulates the subgenual anterior cingulate cortex (sgACC), a deep mood-related region, using interleaved TMS/fMRI to record brain responses to stimulation.
The school
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: 72 labs on PI Pages, $1.6B a year on research, 523 research doctorates a year.
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