Boakye Lab Research Areas
Neuroplasticity And Neurophysiology
Spinal Cord Injury
We are currently looking at sensorimotor plasticity after spinal cord injury using a variety of techniques including FMRI, TMS and somatosensory evoked potentials. Other projects include:
- Development of methods to probe spinal physiology after injury
- Treadmill training and locomotion after injury
- Epidural stimulation after spinal cord injury
- Variability of recovery after spinal cord injury
- Physiological methods of evaluating severity of injuries and monitoring outcomes after spinal cord injury
- Modulation of spinal and brain plasticity using noninvasive peripheral and magnetic stimulation
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Studies
- Modulation of D and I waves after TMS
- Mechanisms of generation of afferent inhibition in the nervous system
- Role of somatosensory system in motor recovery.
Clinical Studies
Cyberknife Treatment of Back Pain
This project evaluates the efficacy of cyberknife in treatment of facetogenic back pain. Patients with suspected facetogenic back pain are selected using combination of clinical history, physical exam, MRI studies, PET-CT data and facet blocks.
PET-CT studies of Facet Pain
This project evaluates the role of 18F-Fluoride PET-CT in the diagnosis and treatment of facetogenic pain. The goals are to study the effectiveness of PET-CT in predicting the response to radiofrequency facet rhizotomy or facet blocks.
Outcomes Research
The main goals of this section is to evaluate neurosurgical outcomes using Nationwide hospital databases. Ongoing projects include analysis of neurosurgical outcomes using the Nationwide Inpatient Sample (NIS) database and Veteran's Affairs National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (NSQIP) database.
