Meet our Experts

Toronto Rehab researchers are pushing the frontiers of rehabilitation science. We’re finding practical solutions to help individuals who have experienced a brain injury to regain their independence. We’re also working hard to get our best ideas and innovations into widespread use. Current brain injury-related research projects include:

 

Competing parts of recovery

Toronto Rehab scientists are trying to discover the obstacles to recovery from brain injury. Scientist and Clinical Neuropsychologist Dr. Robin Green is studying the relationship between cognitive and motor function during recovery – and the possibility that different parts of the brain are competing with each other during recovery, resulting in a trade-off. Dr. Green is also studying the immediate and lasting effects of doubling therapy intensity.

 

Concussion

Dr. Karen Johnston, a Toronto Rehab neurosurgeon and adjunct scientist, is part of an international team of researchers that is studying sports-related concussions in an effort to improve diagnosis, treatment and prevention methods. She is organizer and co-author of the May 2009 international “Consensus statement on concussion in sport” paper.

 

Safe return to play

Researcher Dr. Paul Comper is studying neuropsychological testing after concussion in varsity athletes in order to better determine when it is safe to return to sport in partnership with the University of Toronto. As a result of this research, U of T’s intercollegiate athletics program has changed its return-to-play guidelines.

 

Getting back on track 

Nadine Richard, recipient of a Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Scholarship in Rehabilitation-related Research for Graduate Students with Disabilities, is studying the brain’s ability to stay focused and cope with distractions. She is looking at differences in brain activity after TBI, to better understand how the brain can adapt to injury.

 

Brain injury and homelessness

Dr. Angela Colantonio has collaboratively found that more than half of Toronto’s homeless population has a TBI. Even more concerning, for 70 percent of those surveyed, the first TBI occurred before becoming homeless.