Prof. Dr. med. Andreas Luft

 

Main Goals, Keywords

• To explore mechanisms of cortical plasticity during learning and recovery after  brain lesion
• To identify predictors of good recovery and outcome after stroke
• To develop novel therapies to help movement recovery after stroke
• Rehabilitation, plasticity, stroke, motor system, motor cortex, motor learning

Group Members (alphabetical)

Clement Atiemo (Technician), Benjamin Hertler (Resident fellow), Dr. Jonas Hosp (Resident fellow), Tina Kaffenberger (Resident fellow), Dr.rer. nat. M. Pedotti (Researcher), Maximilian Schubring-Giese (Resident fellow), Dr. Stefanie Schwarz (Resident fellow), Simone Triem (Resident fellow)

Previous and Current Research

a) Animals, basic science

•    Dopaminergic neurotransmission in motor cortex and learning
•    Protein syntesis during movement learning
•    The role of substance P in movement leanring
•    Motor cortical gene expression during learning
•    Motor learning-related structural plasticity

b) Humans, clinical studies

•    Brain plasticity during repetivtive rehabilitative training after stroke
•    Efficacy of treadmill aerobic exercise to improve gait and fitness after stroke
•    Predictors of effective motor rehabilitation after stroke
•    Procedural learning deficits after stroke and their mechanisms
•    Reward during rehabilitation and its role for stimulating recovery

Techniques and Equipment

a) Animals, basic science

•    Behavioral studies in rat, learning and recovery models
•    Photothrombotic stroke model
•    Pharmacological studies using direct intracortical application of drugs.
•    In vivo electrophysiology in behaving animals
•    Slice electrophysiology
•    Immunohistochemistry, FISH, histology
•    Golgi Cox analysis of neuronal morphology

b) Humans, clinical studies

•    Functional imaging, fMRI
•    Structural imaging, morphological measurements on brain images, DTI, voxel based morphometry
•    Clinical trials
•    Epidemiological studies (Zurich Observational Registry of Rehabilitation Outcomes, ZORRO)
•    Robotic rehabilitation therapies

Selected Publications

• Whitall, J., McCombe-Waller, S., Sorkin, J., Forrester, L.W., Macko, R.F.,  Hanley, D.F., Goldberg, A.P., Luft, A.R. Bilateral and unilateral arm training improve motor function through differing neuroplastic mechanisms: A single-blinded randomized controlled trial. Neurorehabil Neural Repair, in press.
• Lam, J.M., Globas, Ch., Hertler, B., Forrester, L.W., Macko, R.F., Hanley, D.F., Becker, C., Luft, A.R. Predictors of response to treadmill exercise in stroke survivors. Neurorehabil Neural Repair 24: 6, 567-574 (2010).
• Globas, C., Lam, J.M., Zhang, W., Imanbayev, A., Hertler, B., Becker, C., Whitall, J., McCombe-Waller, S., Mori, S., Hanley, D., Luft, A.R. Mesencephalic corticospinal atrophy predicts baseline deficit but not response to uni- or bilateral arm training in chronic stroke. Neurorehabil Neural Repair, in press.

Selected Lectures, Seminars, Colloquia

• “Cerebrovascular Disease and Stroke”, 2-day block course for the postdoctoral students of the Neuroscience Center Zurich (ZNZ) (once per semester).
  
• RITZ Neurorehabilitation-Symposium, see www.neuroreha.uzh.ch

Collaborators

Neurorehabilitation Engineering, ETH (Proff. Riener, Gassert), Experimental Neurorehabilitation (Prof. Courtine), Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research (Prof. Di Giovanni), University of Maryland, Baltimore (Proff. Whitall, Macko), Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (Prof. Hanley)

Funding

NCCR Neural Plasticity and Repair, DFG, Veteran Affairs Administration, USA.