The brain and spinal cord undergo neuroplastic changes in response to spinal cord injury (SCI), many of which are maladaptative, with negative implications for motor and sensory function. These maladaptive changes can also give rise to undesirable secondary conditions such as spasticity. Conversely, the use-dependent plasticity associated with movement, practice, and training promotes beneficial adaptive changes at all levels of the neuraxis. The mechanisms underlying the improvements that accompany practice and training can be amplified through the use of clinically accessible neuromodulation approaches. These approaches can be directed at brain, spinal, and peripheral neural circuits/structures. This session will set the stage for a discussion of the studies currently underway in the SCI Research Program at Shepherd Center, and describe future directions for rehabilitation research and practice.

Edelle (Edee) Field-Fote, PT, PhD, FAPTA, FASIA holds the positions of Director, Shepherd Center Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Research Program & Hulse Laboratory; Professor, Emory University School of Medicine, Department of Rehabilitation Medicine; and Professor of the Practice, Georgia Institute of Technology, School of Biological Sciences. 

With a clinical background as a physical therapist, PhD training in a pre-clinical model of SCI, and post-doctoral training in neurophysiology, her 25+ years of SCI research has spanned the breadth of basic and clinical/translational research related to SCI.  Dr. Field-Fote leads a research team dedicated to improving motor function in persons with SCI through the development of clinically accessible neuromodulation and neurorehabilitation approaches informed by the latest neuroscience research and guided by outcomes that have meaning for persons with SCI. Dr. Field-Fote has conducted randomized clinical trials with continuous funding from the NIH since 1997, with other trials in her lab funded by the Department of Defense, the National Institute on Independent Living Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and numerous foundations.  

She currently serves as Chair of the Spinal Cord Injury Model Systems Project Directors consortium, as lead-PI of the NIH R25-funded program Training in Grantsmanship in Rehabilitation Research, and as Chair of the Paralyzed Veterans of America Clinical Practice Guideline Development Panel for the guidelines Outcomes After Spinal Cord Injury. Dr. Field-Fote is a past Chair of the NIH National Advisory Board on Medical Rehabilitation Research, past President of the Foundation for Physical Therapy Research, and the 54^th McMillan Lecture Award honoree.