Lynnette Montgomery, PT, PhD, directs the Laboratory of Rehabilitation, Motor control and Plasticity (ReMaP). Montgomery's research is focused on understanding the mechanisms underlying neural plasticity and facilitating recovery following neurological injury. The focus of ReMaP is locomotor recovery following spinal cord injury (SCI) and how different rehabilitative interventions can bring about improvements in different parts of gait. One area of walking Montgomery is interested in specifically is how the nervous system controls the knee and ankle during stance phase to prevent the leg from collapsing as the opposite leg swings through. Currently there are few interventions that physical therapy offers to improve knee and ankle control during stance following neurological injury apart from prescribing mobility aides. The nervous system controls knee and ankle stability during walking by activating muscles in a particular way, when this control system is disrupted by injury gait instability often results. Finding activities that can work the nervous system and these muscles in the same way as they do during normal gait can help to restore stability during walking after injury. One such activity is downhill walking, which ReMaP uses as a rehabilitative intervention in a rodent model of SCI. The effectiveness of this intervention in promoting locomotor recovery is measured using lower limb biomechanics to assess kinematic changes following this intervention. ReMaP also uses neuroanatomical techniques (tract tracing and immunohistochemistry) to investigate how the nervous system changes or adapts as a result of this intervention to understand how this type of rehabilitation facilities neural plasticity and functional locomotor recovery.

Identifying the processes through which rehabilitation can promote plasticity after neurological injury will allow therapists to optimize rehabilitation strategies to maximize functional outcomes and independence.

Principal Investigator

Lynnette Montgomery, PT, PhD
Assistant Professor - Physical Therapy & Rehabilitation Science

Health Sciences Building, 11th Floor, Room 11W42
60 N. 36th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104

Email: lrm82@drexel.edu

Publications

Google Scholar

Impact of Locomotor Training on Declines on Motor Recovery after Spinal Cord Injury (SCI)

Following SCI, individuals who recover the ability to walk in the community have a greater risk of falling during daily activities, but the reason for this is poorly understood. During gait, as body weight is shifted on to one leg so the other leg can step through, the weight bearing leg bends as it accepts the weight. After SCI, changes to the activation of ankle muscles, particularly gastrocnemius, disrupt the control of this flexion during weight shift, which can lead to instability and/or collapse when loading the leg. Currently there are few rehabilitation interventions that address this deficit adequately, however, the task of walking downhill may offer a new strategy to address these functional deficits. This is because walking on declines leads to increased flexion of the leg during loading over a longer period of the gait cycle. This project investigates the biomechanical changes that occur during gait following SCI and the response to different rehabilitation interventions such as walking on level ground or on declined surfaces. In addition, ReMaP is investigating the role that descending motor pathways, especially those from the brainstem, may play in this disruption in biomechanics during weight shift and if the different rehabilitation interventions (training on level or declined surfaces) will facilitate plasticity within these pathways. This is done using tract tracing and immunohistochemical techniques to identify various axons and neurons in the lumbosacral spinal cord as shown in the picture below.

Role: Principal Investigator