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“Determination allows mere mortals to soar to unimaginable, new heights” – (attribution unknown) – this quote speaks to the need for determination as an ingredient in the “effort to outcome” equation.  What it doesn’t mention – and what we so often don’t hear about – is how to harness that determination and put it to good use. 

Simply stated, we know anecdotally that determination is a crucial ingredient to positive results – but we’ve all had missteps in that department. We’ve had New Year’s resolutions go awry, diets that fade, or a will to succeed at something that doesn’t entirely end up with the result we want (PWP’s can speak to this on a daily basis).

What if we could find a way to harness that determination, or to train our brains so that our determination can be focused more sharply, and actually put to good use?

The first step in making that happen is to measure – on a statistically significant basis – whether it’s even possible.  Dr. Sule Tinaz, Assistant Professor of Neurology at the Yale School of Medicine, is working to make that happen.

Dr. Sule Tinez, Yale School of MedicineDr. Tinaz has been at Yale since 2015 and sees patients in her Movement Disorders Clinics and Botox Clinics at the Yale School of Medicine.  She spends most of her time conducting brain imaging research in individuals with Parkinson’s.  According to Dr. Tinaz, brain imaging tools are used primarily to investigate the brain pathology in neurological and psychiatric conditions. They are also used to measure the brain changes in response to various treatment interventions. She aspired to use brain imaging not only as an investigative tool but also as an intervention. As noted by Dr. Tinaz, the brain is a “plastic” organ; in other words, it constantly changes and “rewires” itself.

She says that “recent advances in brain imaging technology allow us to track these changes in almost real-time. Neurofeedback training with functional MRI provides an unprecedented opportunity for this purpose. Functional MRI-based neurofeedback is a noninvasive intervention that improves individuals’ abilities to control their brain activity in real-time. With practice, individuals can also learn how to self-regulate behavior that is associated with this brain activity. This intervention has been used successfully in several neuropsychiatric disorders (for example, anxiety, addiction, depression), but reports of its use in Parkinson’s disease are scant. The main goal of my current project is to train individuals with Parkinson’s disease using neurofeedback combined with mental imagery”.

CAP is pleased to directly fund a portion of Dr. Tinaz’s research, thanks to the generosity of CAP’s donors.  This research is critical to determining, statistically speaking, if individuals can “use their unique skills and strategies to “experiment” with their own brain activity and to try harness it’s potential to change itself.”

In order to determine if this is actually possible – i.e., it meets the threshold of results to publish as “significant” – the clinical trial needs to be fully enrolled. This means we need an “all-hands-on-deck” for CAP and other PD groups around the area to get participants!! We Need You!! It doesn’t matter what your group name is – it matters that you are helping research in PD!

 This is a non-invasive free and confidential study that will help to understand how the brain changes and potential motor benefits associated with mental imagery training in Parkinson’s disease. The study involves 4 visits that will include neurological assessment, paper-pencil tests, brief behavioral tasks, and MRI scans. Compensation up to $100 ($25 per visit).  To learn more or see if you are eligible to participate, email Sule Tinaz at sule.tinaz@yale.edu or call (203) 785-2185.

On a side note, Yale is putting a significant emphasis on the concepts of collaborative, multi-disciplinary neuroscience research.  According to Dr. Tinaz, “Yale has plans for a new initiative to build a Neuroscience Institute. This institute will aim to bring together multidisciplinary research clusters in neuroscience across the Yale campus to integrate research and foster collaboration between researchers in basic, translational, and applied sciences that would lead to paradigm-shifting discoveries in neuroscience. Basic and translational research in brain diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease will no doubt be a major strength of this initiative.”
 

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