Dr. Ellen Jaspers wins Marie Curie Actions - Intra-European Fellowship (IEF)

The overall goal of this project is to identify neural biomarkers predicting sensorimotor dysfunction of children with a brain lesion. Cerebral palsy (CP), caused by a non-progressive lesion of the developing fetal or infant brain, is by far the most common physical disability during childhood. Irrespective of the severity of the disability, children with CP experience lifelong impairments of motor and sensory functions that restrict their independence and put a high emotional and financial burden on families, caretakers and society. Currently, the field has high hopes that MRI can also aid clinical decisions regarding which rehabilitation therapy would be best suited for the individual child. However, progress is hampered by the lack of appropriate methodology to identify sensitive neural biomarkers. In this proposal, I will tackle this problem by applying and validating new analysis methods for quantifying the disease state of the sensorimotor system in CP, using advanced imaging methods including a new T1-/T2-weighted MRI contrast method, functional MRI of the resting-state, diffusion weighted MRI and transcranial magnetic stimulation. This quantification is a first and crucial step in the identification of clinically relevant neural biomarkers that will pave the road for larger multicentre clinical trials necessary to determine how sensorimotor rehabilitation can be tailored to the needs of the individual child with CP.