I was first introduced to stroke after
my very first year of university as a
family liaison of the intensive care
unit an emergency room at a local
hospital I was able to meet people from
all walks of life that shared one thing
in common a loved one was sick or
injured now as an 18 year old with no
medical experience whatsoever I could
not tell the difference between many
diagnoses that occurred within the
hospital however there was one that I
could recognize just a little bit better
strokes the weakness to one side of the
body
the slurred or jumbled speech it seemed
clear to me that this patient has had a
stroke a stroke occurs when the blood
supply to the brain is interrupted or
reduced and this can lead to a variety
of impairments and disabilities now
currently with the drastic increase in
lifespan over the past 50 years a lot of
the research in this area focuses on
strokes and elderly populations in fact
I spent two years of my life
investigating geriatric strokes here at
McEwen and at the University of Waterloo
but what if I were to tell you that
there’s an age group that has a higher
risk of stroke than older adults
what if I were to tell you that this
group is babies babies having a stroke
that seems a little weird well in fact a
full-term newborn baby has tripled the
weekly stroke risk of an adult that
smokes and is a type 2 diabetic and has
high blood pressure
10,000 Canadian children are currently
living with the consequences of having a
stroke at birth clearly this is a
substantial issue so on the Left we can
see an MRI scan of a typically healthy
newborn brain and on the right we see a
scan of a one-day-old baby who has had a
stroke at birth now if this stroke would
occur to anyone of us in this room it
would be devastating but since this baby
is only one day old it has the
opportunity to develop around this
injury and have a better life these
strokes can be classified as peri
stroke that is a stroke that occurs
prior to our soon after birth and can
lead to a variety of the disabilities
these can be a weakness to one side of
the body an intellectual disability
behavioral disorders as well as epilepsy
now since there is no preventative
measure to prevent these from occurring
most research in this area focuses on
how to improve outcomes following stroke
currently I’m a graduate student at the
Alberta Children’s Hospital and my lab
is dedicated to understanding perinatal
stroke and how to optimize results
following stroke my supervisor has
created a team that is dedicated and can
use a very vast number of different
cutting-edge techniques and equipment to
look at perinatal stroke for example we
have an MRI scan that can take in-depth
pictures of the child’s brain while they
go on a magical journey into space the
kids can become astronauts and receive
training certificates by completing an
MRI scan so we can use this to answer a
variety of questions for example we can
track the diffusion of water to look at
different pathways within the brain and
then we can correlate these pathways to
how well they do clinically additionally
we can look at the functional activity
in the brain and as well look at how
this correlates with how well they do
clinically now additionally our lab is
one of a few labs across the world that
deals with pediatric non-invasive brain
stimulation now if you haven’t heard of
brain simulation before it might seem a
little weird at first but I assure you
it is completely safe there is a slight
tingling feeling but the kids really do
not seem to mind so our lab uses
multiple different types of non-invasive
brain stimulation such as this robotic
TMS machine but for the purposes of this
talk I’m only going to discuss one which
is called transcranial direct current
stimulation or tDCS for short so as you
can see this device is lot smaller and
easier to use when activated the two
electrodes on the scalp send a weak
electrical career
that goes through the skull and onto the
surface of the brain now the stimulation
alone might not be enough to cause any
change itself but the idea here is that
you would use this brain stimulation
when doing a certain task and it might
help you learn this task better or
faster so brain stimulation is on the
horizon and it’s gaining a lot of
traction in a lot of different fields
Olympic athletes are using tDCS other
researchers are using tDCS to look at
things like depression or schizophrenia
even surgeons are beginning to take a
look at this
my first tDCS experience was actually
here at the university in dr. chris
dreamers lab where we use tDCS as a
potential therapeutic device to
rehabilitate people from a certain type
of stroke seen in older adults so our
lab back in Calgary has used tDCS and
has actually shown that it improves
motor function in healthy killed and
healthy kids so what you can see is that
what’s highlighted in blue is the
placebo version of tDCS where it feels
like it’s sending up current but it’s
not actually doing anything compared to
in the green where there is you can see
the improvement by itself an important
thing to note is that this change was
still evident six weeks after testing
the brain stimulation literally changed
their brains so let’s go back to the
child with a perinatal stroke since the
stroke has occurred to the right side of
their brain they will have some weakness
to the left side of their body and this
leads to the well-known idea that the
right side of the brain and all of us
here controls the left side of the body
but this is not always the case when we
were first born the right side of our
brain controlled not only the left hand
of our body but the right side of our
body as well the idea here is that
throughout development these same side
pathways degrade and allow for these
natural crossing pathways to form but in
perinatal stroke kids sometimes have to
rely on these same side pathways because
it might be the only connection that
they have from their brain to their
weakened hand
now you may think that these same side
pathways are doing some good for these
kids but in fact they’re actually doing
the opposite research has shown that
kids with fewer same-side pathways have
a better clinical motor ability so
therefore our lab tries to use tDCS to
inhibit these same side pathways and in
turn improve their motor function to
date our lab has completed one clinical
trial in perinatal stroke using tDCS
this trial showed that tDCS and
perinatal stroke was safe and feasible
additionally we asked kids to come up
with a specific goal that they had prior
to the trial this could be something
like tying their shoes with both of
their hands or fixing a pedal bike after
the trial we asked them you know do you
think you were successful of your goal
the kids that received brain stimulation
reported a higher chance of success
compared to the kids who received the
placebo version this gave our lab hope
and it also leads to our second clinical
trial that is happening right now in
this clinical trial we decided since the
last clinical trials so that tDCS was
safe in children with perinatal stroke
we decided to increase the amount of
stimulation just to see if we can
improve outcomes even more now this
clinical trial is still going on right
now so I’m not able to discuss how the
findings are but it appears so far that
all the kids have attended have shown a
really positive benefit so being at the
Children’s Hospital has really shown me
the importance of research just the
other day I was able to observe a
neurosurgery and got to see a live human
brain inches away from my face and then
I got to see that same patient speak few
hours later this would not be possible
without research for me and my research
I loved being able to interact with
perinatal stroke survivors and survive
in stroke survivors of all ages they are
all gladiators
to me they give me and my lab motivation
to come up with innovative ways of using
brain stimulation to develop the
rehabilitation even more there is one
thing that I can tell you about the
clinical trial right now is that it is
giving hope to perinatal stroke
survivors and if there’s one thing that
I’ve learned in my relatively short
research career is that hope inspires
research and research inspires hope
thank you
[Applause]
my very first year of university as a
family liaison of the intensive care
unit an emergency room at a local
hospital I was able to meet people from
all walks of life that shared one thing
in common a loved one was sick or
injured now as an 18 year old with no
medical experience whatsoever I could
not tell the difference between many
diagnoses that occurred within the
hospital however there was one that I
could recognize just a little bit better
strokes the weakness to one side of the
body
the slurred or jumbled speech it seemed
clear to me that this patient has had a
stroke a stroke occurs when the blood
supply to the brain is interrupted or
reduced and this can lead to a variety
of impairments and disabilities now
currently with the drastic increase in
lifespan over the past 50 years a lot of
the research in this area focuses on
strokes and elderly populations in fact
I spent two years of my life
investigating geriatric strokes here at
McEwen and at the University of Waterloo
but what if I were to tell you that
there’s an age group that has a higher
risk of stroke than older adults
what if I were to tell you that this
group is babies babies having a stroke
that seems a little weird well in fact a
full-term newborn baby has tripled the
weekly stroke risk of an adult that
smokes and is a type 2 diabetic and has
high blood pressure
10,000 Canadian children are currently
living with the consequences of having a
stroke at birth clearly this is a
substantial issue so on the Left we can
see an MRI scan of a typically healthy
newborn brain and on the right we see a
scan of a one-day-old baby who has had a
stroke at birth now if this stroke would
occur to anyone of us in this room it
would be devastating but since this baby
is only one day old it has the
opportunity to develop around this
injury and have a better life these
strokes can be classified as peri
stroke that is a stroke that occurs
prior to our soon after birth and can
lead to a variety of the disabilities
these can be a weakness to one side of
the body an intellectual disability
behavioral disorders as well as epilepsy
now since there is no preventative
measure to prevent these from occurring
most research in this area focuses on
how to improve outcomes following stroke
currently I’m a graduate student at the
Alberta Children’s Hospital and my lab
is dedicated to understanding perinatal
stroke and how to optimize results
following stroke my supervisor has
created a team that is dedicated and can
use a very vast number of different
cutting-edge techniques and equipment to
look at perinatal stroke for example we
have an MRI scan that can take in-depth
pictures of the child’s brain while they
go on a magical journey into space the
kids can become astronauts and receive
training certificates by completing an
MRI scan so we can use this to answer a
variety of questions for example we can
track the diffusion of water to look at
different pathways within the brain and
then we can correlate these pathways to
how well they do clinically additionally
we can look at the functional activity
in the brain and as well look at how
this correlates with how well they do
clinically now additionally our lab is
one of a few labs across the world that
deals with pediatric non-invasive brain
stimulation now if you haven’t heard of
brain simulation before it might seem a
little weird at first but I assure you
it is completely safe there is a slight
tingling feeling but the kids really do
not seem to mind so our lab uses
multiple different types of non-invasive
brain stimulation such as this robotic
TMS machine but for the purposes of this
talk I’m only going to discuss one which
is called transcranial direct current
stimulation or tDCS for short so as you
can see this device is lot smaller and
easier to use when activated the two
electrodes on the scalp send a weak
electrical career
that goes through the skull and onto the
surface of the brain now the stimulation
alone might not be enough to cause any
change itself but the idea here is that
you would use this brain stimulation
when doing a certain task and it might
help you learn this task better or
faster so brain stimulation is on the
horizon and it’s gaining a lot of
traction in a lot of different fields
Olympic athletes are using tDCS other
researchers are using tDCS to look at
things like depression or schizophrenia
even surgeons are beginning to take a
look at this
my first tDCS experience was actually
here at the university in dr. chris
dreamers lab where we use tDCS as a
potential therapeutic device to
rehabilitate people from a certain type
of stroke seen in older adults so our
lab back in Calgary has used tDCS and
has actually shown that it improves
motor function in healthy killed and
healthy kids so what you can see is that
what’s highlighted in blue is the
placebo version of tDCS where it feels
like it’s sending up current but it’s
not actually doing anything compared to
in the green where there is you can see
the improvement by itself an important
thing to note is that this change was
still evident six weeks after testing
the brain stimulation literally changed
their brains so let’s go back to the
child with a perinatal stroke since the
stroke has occurred to the right side of
their brain they will have some weakness
to the left side of their body and this
leads to the well-known idea that the
right side of the brain and all of us
here controls the left side of the body
but this is not always the case when we
were first born the right side of our
brain controlled not only the left hand
of our body but the right side of our
body as well the idea here is that
throughout development these same side
pathways degrade and allow for these
natural crossing pathways to form but in
perinatal stroke kids sometimes have to
rely on these same side pathways because
it might be the only connection that
they have from their brain to their
weakened hand
now you may think that these same side
pathways are doing some good for these
kids but in fact they’re actually doing
the opposite research has shown that
kids with fewer same-side pathways have
a better clinical motor ability so
therefore our lab tries to use tDCS to
inhibit these same side pathways and in
turn improve their motor function to
date our lab has completed one clinical
trial in perinatal stroke using tDCS
this trial showed that tDCS and
perinatal stroke was safe and feasible
additionally we asked kids to come up
with a specific goal that they had prior
to the trial this could be something
like tying their shoes with both of
their hands or fixing a pedal bike after
the trial we asked them you know do you
think you were successful of your goal
the kids that received brain stimulation
reported a higher chance of success
compared to the kids who received the
placebo version this gave our lab hope
and it also leads to our second clinical
trial that is happening right now in
this clinical trial we decided since the
last clinical trials so that tDCS was
safe in children with perinatal stroke
we decided to increase the amount of
stimulation just to see if we can
improve outcomes even more now this
clinical trial is still going on right
now so I’m not able to discuss how the
findings are but it appears so far that
all the kids have attended have shown a
really positive benefit so being at the
Children’s Hospital has really shown me
the importance of research just the
other day I was able to observe a
neurosurgery and got to see a live human
brain inches away from my face and then
I got to see that same patient speak few
hours later this would not be possible
without research for me and my research
I loved being able to interact with
perinatal stroke survivors and survive
in stroke survivors of all ages they are
all gladiators
to me they give me and my lab motivation
to come up with innovative ways of using
brain stimulation to develop the
rehabilitation even more there is one
thing that I can tell you about the
clinical trial right now is that it is
giving hope to perinatal stroke
survivors and if there’s one thing that
I’ve learned in my relatively short
research career is that hope inspires
research and research inspires hope
thank you
[Applause]
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