As
a child neurologist (Assistant Adjunct Professor, Departments of Neurology and
Pediatrics), my research program focuses on better understanding brain injury
in the human newborn. I am specifically interested in the brain changes that underlie
the motor and cognitive deficits resulting from neonatal brain injury. To study
these questions, I am funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and
the Larry L. Hillblom Foundation. Advances in magnetic resonance (MR) technology,
including Diffusion Tensor Imaging and MR Spectroscopic Imaging, allow for premature
babies and those with congenital heart disease to be studied safely in the first
few weeks of life. I am now studying the specific changes in the periventricular
white matter detected by these MR techniques in the neonatal period that are
associated with the motor, visual, and cognitive deficits seen in a group of children
born prematurely. In a project funded by the American Heart Association, I am
also studying a group of newborns with heart birth defects with these MR techniques
to determine when brain injury happens in this group of newborns and if this injury
affects their development. The advanced magnetic resonance techniques I am applying
in this research program are the first techniques that identify brain injury at
a time when intervention is theoretically possible. The long-term goal of my research
program will be to test new strategies to prevent brain injury in the newborn.
