Post-doctoral fellow in neuroscience, Charalambos C. Charalambous, who is supervised by Professor of Neuroscience, Avgis Hadjipapas, presented his research work in a poster session at the Neurorehabilitation: Creating a Vision for the Future conference. The conference was held in Los Angeles, California from 11 to 13 April 2023, to honour the distinguished career of Dr Carolee Winstein, who was Dr Charalambous’s graduate supervisor at the University of Southern California.
The conference was attended by renowned scientists, neurologists, and health professionals who shared their research, experience, and innovation in the field of neurorehabilitation. Dr Charalambous presented the cumulative results of an ongoing project, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Nevada in Las Vegas, Brooks Rehabilitation, and the Medical University of South Carolina. The project investigates the common neural drive of the ankle plantarflexors during walking in individuals post-stroke.
Charalambos’s presentation demonstrated that certain frequency bands (beta and low-gamma) were impaired, while others (alpha) were upregulated and correlated with a muscle-specific mechanical measure (propulsive impulse) during self-paced and fast treadmill walking. These findings could pave the way for future research to elucidate the neural control of walking after stroke and to develop novel rehabilitation strategies using innovative neuromodulatory techniques such as transcranial Alternate Current Stimulation.