It is thought that REM sleep is very important in motor memory consolidation. There have been studies done where they have compared people who learn motor skills and then gone through REM sleep with those that do a retention without the sleep period. They showed not just superior performance in those individuals who slept, but also all kinds of changes in their brain. For instance, it showed a high correlation of connectivity between premotor cortex and motor cortex, or supplementary motor cortex and motor cortex in those individuals who had REM sleep after the skill learning.
I remember when I was younger and stressed out about a test and crammed up to the last minute. I stayed up all night, but my mom always told me that it was important for me to go to sleep. We did not have the data associated with that at the time, but my mother was a neuroscientist, because in fact, there is a great deal of evidence that supports that sleep is very important. It is also a probable factor in why people with Parkinson’s disease have trouble with learning motor skills. We know that because of the medications they are taking and because of the disease itself, they have a lot of problems with sleep.
Beth Fisher, PT, PhD, FAPTA
Beth Fisher is Is a Professor of Clinical Physical Therapy in the Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy at the University of Southern California. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Neurology, Keck School of medicine at USC. Dr. Fisher is the director of the Neuroplasticity and Imaging Laboratory primarily using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to investigate brain-behavior relationships during motor skill learning and motor control in both non-disabled individuals and individuals with neurologic disorders. She previously worked at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center on the Adult Neurology and Brain Injury Services and continues to consult and teach nationally and internationally on current concepts for the treatment of adults with neurological disorders. During her years as a clinician and rehabilitation specialist, it was her greatest ambition to be a part of developing physical therapy interventions that would maximize neural and behavioral recovery in individuals suffering from pathological conditions affecting the nervous system. Towards this goal, she is currently studying the effects of skill training on functional recovery and brain repair in Parkinson’s disease. Additionally, she is studying brain changes using TMS in healthy individuals learning complex motor skills as well as long-term brain modifications that have occurred as the result of elite performance in athletes and professional musicians. In 2014, Dr. Fisher became a Catherine Worthingham Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association. The FAPTA designation is the highest honor among APTA’s membership categories and signifies attainment of the topmost level of professional excellence
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'She was very organized and easy to understand , but for me, a PTA, it was too advanced for me, or it may be that I have never wanted to work on wounds and that is why I chose PT'Read Reviews
This webinar introduces participants to the different types of wounds commonly found in patients with neurological impairments. It provides clinicians with basic treatment and risk reduction techniques to utilize in their practice settings. This course is directly related to the practice of physical therapy and is therefore appropriate for the PT/PTA.
