MOTOR PERFORMANCE LABORATORY Department of Neurology Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons August 2003 The Motor Performance Laboratory is a research facility dedicated to the study of the neural basis of limb movement control in health and neurologic disease. Specific areas of research include: • Mechanisms of motor learning • The role of motor learning in adaptation to progressive brain dysfunction caused by neurodegenerative diseases such as Huntington's disease and Parkinson's disease • The role of motor learning in recovery of motor function after stroke Our research program's goals include: • To understand how brain lesions and neurodegenerative disorders produce abnormal movements • To identify objective manifestations of disease for diagnostic purposes and to monitor the effects of treatment • To design improved rehabilitation strategies • To gain insight, through the effects of disease, into the mechanisms of normal motor control The laboratory is located in the Neurological Institute at the Health Sciences Campus of Columbia University in New York City. It is co-directed by Drs. Pietro Mazzoni and John Krakauer. Research Techniques The major research techniques used in the laboratory are: • Motor psychophysics: Understanding motor control principles and strategies by recording the performance of human subjects in motor execution and motor learning tasks involving reaching and pointing • Functional Brain Imaging: Identifying neural networks that underlie motor control by recording brain activation with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) in healthy subjects and in patients with movement disorders and stroke while they perform pointing tasks • Reversible Lesions: Mapping the critical roles of cortical areas by recording the effects on motor performance of brief, reversible functional inactivation of cortical patches with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) in human subjects. Adjacent Institutions Some of the adjacent institutions and facilities include the following: 1) The New York Presbyterian Hospital, Columbia-Presbyterian campus: a 1000-bed medical center that includes an inpatient Neurology Ward, an inpatient Stroke Unit, and a 12bed neurological/neurosurgical intensive care unit. 2) The Neurological Institute, which houses divisions devoted to the clinical care of cerebrovascular disorders, movement disorders, neuromuscular disorders, pediatric neurologic diseases, neurosurgical disorders, and epilepsy. The Institute also houses two imaging centers entirely devoted to brain functional MRI research: the Functional Neuroimaging Center, directed by Joy Hirsch, PhD, and the Hatch Magnetic Imaging Center, headed by Truman Brown, PhD. 3) The New York State Psychiatric Institute, a facility devoted both to psychiatric research and inpatient and outpatient clinical psychiatric care. 4) The Mailman School of Public Health, an institution offering courses in biostatistics and bioethics. The School also has a biostatistics group that is in active collaboration with many research groups for the purpose of data analysis. 5) The Irving Clinical Research Center, a 20-bed unit entirely devoted to clinical research studies. The center is available for research groups throughout the campus to follow patients enrolled in research studies under full medical supervision. Staff As of August 2003, the Motor Performance Laboratory included the following staff: Leia Bagesteiro, PhD, Visiting Researcher Joshua Cappell, MD, PhD, Researcher, Neurologist Ilan Dinstein, BS, Research Assistant John Krakauer, MD, Co-Director Pietro Mazzoni, MD, PhD, Co-Director Antonio Mantovani, MD, Visiting Researcher Roshni Ravindran, BS, Research Assistant Patient Databases Clinical population of patients, followed through formal databases of quantitative clinical and epidemiologic descriptors: Stroke: Cerebrovascular Division, Dept. of Neurology, Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center (CPMC) Movement Disorders: Center for Parkinson's Disease and Other Movement Disorders, Dept. of Neurology, CPMC Huntington's Disease Clinic, New York State Psychiatric Institute (NYSPI), CPMC Collaborations • Truman Brown, PhD: Hatch Brain Imaging Center (fMRI), Dept. of Neurology, CPMC • Claude Ghez, MD: Motor Control Laboratory, Center for Neurobiology and Behavior, Columbia University • Joy Hirsch, MD: Functional Brain Imaging Laboratory (fMRI), Dept. of Neurology, CPMC • Sarah H. Lisanby, MD: Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Laboratory, NYSPI • Randolph Marshall, MD: Cerebral Localization Laboratory, CPMC • Robert Sainburg, PhD: Movement Neuroscience Laboratory, Dept. of Kinesiology, Pennsylvania State University Funding and Support The Motor Performance Laboratory is supported by research grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Huntington's Disease Society of America, and the Lowenstein Foundation.