Postural Motor Activation Deficits After mTBI; Translating Laboratory Findings to Clinical Care

Postural Motor Activation Deficits After mTBI; Translating Laboratory Findings to Clinical Care

This work will address an important gap in physical therapy rehabilitation after concussion. Physical therapy usually focuses on how the brain processes sensory information such as inner ear and vision for balance rehabilitation, but our recent research shows that people with imbalance more often have a problem with how they can respond to imbalance (i.e., motor activation). While there are complex laboratory tools to test motor activation for balance, these tests are not practical for the clinic. The goal of this study is to create both an exercise intervention focused on motor activation after concussion and simple, but objective and instrumented (wearable sensors), clinical measures of motor activation. Objectives: This research study has three aims. 1) The investigators and study team will develop an exercise program to improve the problems with how one's body responds to imbalance (i.e., improve motor activation) after a concussion. The study team will use a Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) approach by collaborating with a team of people with a broad range of experience related to concussion. The study team will form a Community Advisory Board (CAB) that will include patients who have had a concussion, healthcare professionals with expertise in concussion, and healthcare administrators. The CAB will contain people working in the military and civilians. 2) The investigators will compare our new motor-focused physical therapy intervention to the standard sensory focused balance intervention. The goal is to determine which intervention program is more effective in treating balance problems after a concussion. The investigators hypothesize that the motor-focused program will help patients more compared to the sensory program. 3) The investigators and study team will create and test several balance tests that can be used in the clinical without expensive research equipment to our standard research-based motor activation tests. This aim will allow the study team to determine if the clinical tests perform as well as the research-grade tests. To make the test useful to clinicians, the study team will use simpler technology like smart-phone applications, wearable sensors, and virtual reality goggles that are both affordable and practical for healthcare providers.

Inclusion Criteria:

• Diagnosed mTBI (concussion)
• 18-60 years of age
• More than 2 weeks from the date of the most recent mTBI
• Less than 6 months from the most recent mTBI
• Persisting symptoms from the mTBI

Exclusion Criteria:

• Injury, medical, or neurological illness that could explain balance issues
• Moderate to severe substance abuse in the past month
• Display behavior that would interfere with safety during data collection
• Significant pain during the study period (> 7/10)
• Pregnancy
• Persistent use of medications that cause balance impairment during the study
• Active in physical therapy services for mTBI symptoms