Walking, balance and mobility are almost invariably affected by neurological conditions. Gait and balance impairments have a profound impact on an individual\u2019s ability to perform activities of daily living and consequently, quality of life and improvement of gait function is a commonly stated goal by individuals undergoing neurologic rehabilitation. Improvements in gait, mobility and balance are made with neurological rehabilitation. However, despite these gains, balance and gait remain significantly impaired compared to healthy or neurotypical adults. New therapeutic approaches and interventions for balance, mobility and gait are needed. The use of rhythmic cues during gait training and dance instruction are emerging interventions that may address this need. In this talk I will discuss 1) the potential link between rhythmic abilities (e.g. perception and production) and the rhythmicity of gait and 2) the use of dance for the rehabilitation of gait in neurological populations. Although the primary focus of my research is stroke, I will discuss potential applications in other patient populations such as spinal cord injury and multiple sclerosis.<\/p>\n
Dr. Patterson is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy at the University of Toronto and a Scientist with Toronto Rehab. She received her physiotherapy training from Queen\u2019s University and practiced clinically in Canada and the United States before returning to Canada to pursue graduate studies. She received her MSc and PhD in Rehabilitation Science from UofT and completed postdoctoral training at McGill. The overall goal of Dr. Patterson\u2019s research program (which takes place in the RELEARN lab) is to advance neurorehabilitation practice to improve balance and mobility outcomes for people living with neurological conditions. She is currently investigating the process of motor re-learning after stroke, the link between rhythm perception and gait and the use of dance to improve walking and balance post-stroke. Her work is funded by CIHR, the Heart and Stroke Foundation and the Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abstract Walking, balance and mobility are almost invariably affected by neurological conditions. Gait and balance impairments have a profound impact on an individual\u2019s ability to perform activities of daily living …","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/1016"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/1016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1017,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/1016\/revisions\/1017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1016"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=1016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}