The 2-year grant will investigate an innovative combination of direct-attention and metacognitive training in Veteran survivors of traumatic brain injury. We will also assess the impact of our novel cognitive rehabilitation approach on measures of complex functional activities (e.g., activities of daily living and life participation) and neurocognitive tests of attention-control functions. The research will also identify mechanisms and biomarkers of rehabilitation-related brain plasticity by examining high-density scalp-recorded brain electrical activity to assess brain function changes.
Dr. Perlstein received funding as part of his role as an investigator in the VA’s Brain Rehabilitation Research Center (BRRC). The BRRC, directed by Janis J Daly, PhD, conducts research to improve the effectiveness of neurorehabilitation. Investigators work to improve current treatments as well as to create treatment innovations that may restore impairments caused by neurological diseases and injuries such as stroke and incomplete spinal cord injury.
The research will be conducted at the VA’s BRRC and Dr. Perlstein’s Clinical-Cognitive Neuroscience (CCN) Laboratory at the College of Public Health and Health Profession’s Department of Clinical and Health Psychology. Collaborators on the grant include Charles E. Levy, MD (Service Chief, Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine NF/SG Veterans Health System), Kay Waid-Ebbs, Ph.D. (Career Development Awardee and Behavior Analyst, NF/SG VHS), and Baiming Zou, Ph.D. (Research Assistant Professor, Department of Biostatistics, UF College of Public Health and Health Professions).