Alberto Priori, MD, PhD, Professor and Senior Author leads a team of innovative neuroscience researchers and clinicians from the Department of Clinical Neurology and Neurophysiology and Head of the Center for Neurostimulation at the Department of Neurological Sciences of the University of Milan Medical School, IRCCS Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Italy. His main research interests are movement disorders and brain stimulation. This team is currently studying the potential benefit of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to increase efferent and afferent cortical connections for patients with focal hand dystonia.
Alison L. McKenzie, PT, PhD, has been a practicing physical therapist for 27 years. Dr. McKenzie spends a large fraction of her time treating individuals with focal hand dystonia while also serving as a Professor of Physical Therapy at Chapman University in California. Like her colleague Dr. Byl, Alison's research interests and publications are in neuroplasticity and anatomical sciences.
Barbara Baur (Dr. biol. hum., psychologist), is a scientist in the Clinical Neuropsychology Research Group (EKN), Klinikum München-Bogenhausen in Munich, Germany. Dr Baur's interest and previous publications focus on writing disorders and writer's cramp, fine motor functions and disorders, neurorehabilitation and neurocognitive functions and disorders.
Eckart Altenmüller, MD, MA, PhD, is the Director at the Institute of Music Physiology and Musicians Medicine and the University of Music and Drama in Hanover, Germany. He is a leading researcher and clinician in movement disorders in musicians and in the area of motor and sensory learning, as well as in the effects of music on emotions. He has published 94 peer-reviewed original articles and 110 articles in books. This is, however, his first publication in the Journal of Hand Therapy.
Hans-Christian Jabusch, MD (Prof., Dr.), is head of the Institute of Musicians' Medicine at the University of Music Carl Maria von Weber, Dresden, Germany. His scientific interests and previous publications stem from his training in medicine and piano and include sensorimotor learning in musicians and evaluation and optimization of practice strategies. This is his first publication in the JHT.
Leighton B. Hinkley, PhD, is a post-doctoral fellow in Radiology at the University of California, San Francisco. This is his first publication in JHT. Dr. Hinkley's graduate training and previous research focused on the neuroimaging of complex manual behavior. His current research interests include translational neuroscience, examining neural connectivity, and sensorimotor integration in patients with focal hand dystonia, and he is presently supported by a fellowship from the Dystonia Medical Research Foundation.
Nancy N. Byl, MPH, PhD, PT, FAPTA, is Professor and Chair Emeritus in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science in the School of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco. For more than 25 years, Dr. Byl has been involved in the development of graduate education in physical therapy as well as basic science and clinical research in focal hand dystonia and neurodegenerative diseases. She is an active clinician and an educator, particularly committed to the education of scholarly clinicians who are excited about discovery and committed to evidence-based practice.
Peter T. Lin, MD, is a practicing neurologist and clinician educator at the Santa Clara Valley Medical Center in San Jose, California. His primary professional interests are in clinical movement disorders, botulinum toxin therapy, and electrodiagnostic testing for movement disorder populations. He completed a clinical fellowship in Human Motor Control at NINDS under the mentorship of Dr. Mark Hallett. Previously, Peter has published articles on focal hand dystonia, brain computer interface technology, and magnetoencephalography for preoperative mapping. This is his first publication in the journal.
Stephen J. Frucht, MD, Associate Professor of Clinical Neurology at Columbia-Presbyterian maintains a busy practice devoted to the care and treatment of patients with hyperkinetic movement disorders. Dr. Frucht and his patient Glen Estrin formed the organization Musicians with Dystonia to provide information and assistance to afflicted patients, and to encourage research into the causes and treatment of focal dystonia affecting professional musicians. Partnering with the celebrated pianist Leon Fleisher, they participated in a public awareness campaign for dystonia that reached nearly 200 million people.
Sarah Goldman, PhD, OTR/L, CHT, is a researcher in the Military Performance Division at the US Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine in Natick, MA, USA. Her areas of professional interest involve outcome measures for upper extremity impairments, compression neuropathy rehabilitation, research design, and statistical methods. She has previous publications in Navy Medicine and the Journal of Hand Therapy.
FULL TEXT
