Research Highlights
Research in Dr. Terry Sanger's laboratory is directed toward making precise measurements of the arm movements in children with difficulty moving their arms. In particular, he is studying children with dystonia, athetosis, chorea, and other movements that are frequently seen in cerebral palsy and other childhood brain diseases.
Dr. Sanger uses computer analysis based on mathematical models of movement in order to learn how to diagnose different types of movement problems. In addition, by using a sophisticated video imaging system with real-time display of the child's movements, he is investigating the possibility of training children to improve particular arm movements in order to gain better control. The equipment in Dr. Sanger's laboratory includes three-dimensional motion capture and sensitive detectors of muscle activity, as well as powerful graphics displays and video processing. The goal is to learn to diagnose, classify, and treat children with motor disorders affecting arm use.
Brain Malformations
The Carter Center for Brain Research is conducting research in children with a rare form of a brain malformation known as holoprosencephaly (HPE). As a part of a multi-center program, we are researching the clinical aspects and causes of HPE. Other aspects of the study include neuroimaging, molecular genetics, and electroencephalography.
Please visit our Carter Center Web Site for more information.
Epilepsy
David Prince, MD and John R. Huguenard, PhD are studing the basic mechanisms of epilepsy.
Dr. Prince's work deals with epilepsy and regulation of excitability in neurons of the mammalian cerebral cortex and thalamus and mechanisms underlying development of epilepsy. Long-term goals are to understand how injury produces changes in structure and function of neurons and neuronal networks that lead to hyperexcitability and epileptogenesis.
Dr. Huguenard's work deals with the neuronal mechanisms that underlie slow electrical oscillatory activity in the thalamus. These oscillatory rhythms are related to both normal sleep activities and certain forms of epilepsy.
Muscular Dystrophy
Thomas Rando, MD, PhD, heads a lab studying mechanisms of cell survival and cell death in muscular dystrophies and related hereditary, neurodegenerative conditions affecting muscle.
Learn more about Dr. Rando, muscular dystrophy research, and his publications.