Dr. Monica Perez - Reorganization of Descending Motor Pathways Following Human Spinal Cord Injury

Moderated by: Dr. Gino Panza, Wayne State University

Monica Perez, P.T., Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery. She holds a secondary faculty position with the Department of Physical Therapy and with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation where she studies mechanisms involved in the control of movement in healthy humans and in individuals with spinal cord injury.

Dr. Perez received a Ph.D. in physical therapy from University of Miami School of Medicine in 2003. She attended the University of Copenhagen as a post-doctoral fellow at the laboratory of Professor Jens B. Nielsen until 2005. She joined the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the NIH in 2005 as a research fellow working with Dr. Leonardo G. Cohen until 2008. Her research has focused on studying adaptations in motor cortical and spinal cord circuits during acquisition of a novel motor skill using upper and lower limb muscles. This work has been complemented by studies aiming to better understand modulation in motor cortical circuits, including intracortical and interhemispheric interactions between primary motor cortices, during voluntary movement.

Find more of Dr. Perez's work here: https://www.themiamiproject.org/people/faculty/monica-perez/