Combined tDCS and Bimanual Therapy in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Children with unilateral cerebral palsy have hand function deficits as a result of early brain injury. There is urgent need for effective hand therapies based on strong scientific evidence. The proposed project will bring together experts in the field of clinical neurorehabilitation, brain imaging, and biomedical engineering to design a novel therapy for children with cerebral palsy. The project will examine skilled bimanual therapy when paired with a non-invasive brain stimulation technique that has been shown to increase the rate at which individuals learn a motor task. The overall objective of this proposal is to determine how to optimally combine brain stimulation and motor training for rehabilitation.  If successful, this novel approach could potentially reduce the time burden of intensive therapies. The results of this study will not only have important implications for rehabilitation in children with cerebral palsy, but could also contribute to understanding how to optimize rehabilitation of other neurological disorders, such as stroke and spinal cord injury.