(Press-News.org) East Hanover, NJ – January 15, 2024 – Kessler Foundation received a $39,994 grant from the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers to investigate the impact of a unique combination of a single bout of aerobic cycling and virtual reality (VR) on processing speed in persons with multiple sclerosis (MS) and mobility disability.
Processing speed is the most common cognitive problem in persons with MS and may actually contribute to broader cognitive difficulties, according to the grant recipient, Carly Wender, PhD, research scientist in the Center for Neuropsychology and Neuroscience Research. “Processing speed problems can significantly affect the quality of life for individuals with MS, and existing treatments have shown limited effectiveness. Our research suggests that aerobic exercise, particularly walking exercise, could hold the key to addressing these challenges,” Dr. Wender explained.
A large body of research previously conducted by the Foundation’s research teams supports walking aerobic exercise training as a highly promising approach to treat processing speed impairments. The leading hypothesis is that walking demands a high level of multisensory processing from several different sources (i.e., proprioception, physiological, visual). However, a walking program may not be safe for persons with MS-related mobility disability.
“Cycling, on the other hand, is a safer exercise modality, but typically requires lower multisensory processing demands. To enhance the multisensory demand and subsequent cognitive benefits of cycling, we're testing the combination of cycling with two types of virtual reality,” Dr. Wender added.
The latest study will compare the effects of a single bout of cycling alone to two different cycling experiences enhanced with VR technology. Participants will engage in two VR programs--one with a medium level of sensory demand and another with a high level of sensory demand—requiring them to complete cognitive tasks while cycling. “This approach will help uncover the relationship between sensory demand and acute improvements in processing speed which will inform future research on exercise training for long-term processing speed improvements,” concluded Dr. Wender.
About the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers
Organized in 1986 under the direction of neurologists dedicated to clinical care of MS, the Consortium of Multiple Sclerosis Centers (CMSC) has evolved into a multi-disciplinary organization providing a team approach to MS care and a network for all health care professionals and related specialists in the care of persons with MS. For more information, visit CMSC.org.
About Kessler Foundation
Kessler Foundation, a major nonprofit organization in the field of disability, is a global leader in rehabilitation research. Our scientists seek to improve cognition, mobility, and long-term outcomes, including employment, for adults and children with neurological and developmental disabilities of the brain and spinal cord including traumatic brain injury, spinal cord injury, stroke, multiple sclerosis, and autism. Kessler Foundation also leads the nation in funding innovative programs that expand opportunities for employment for people with disabilities. For more information, visit KesslerFoundation.org.
Press Contacts at Kessler Foundation:
Deborah Hauss, DHauss@kesslerfoundation.org;
Carolann Murphy, CMurphy@KesslerFoundation.org.
Stay Connected with Kessler Foundation
Twitter | Facebook | YouTube | Instagram | SoundCloud
END
Kessler Foundation receives grant to investigate impact of combining aerobic exercise and virtual reality for individuals with multiple sclerosis
Current treatments to enhance processing speed in MS, including medication and cognitive rehabilitation, are largely ineffective
2024-01-15
[Attachments] See images for this press release:
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
The power of pause: Controlled deposition for effective and long-lasting organic devices
2024-01-15
Organic optoelectronic devices, such as organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), use molecules with specific structures arranged on thin films. Additionally, the arrangement of these molecules on any surface is crucial for various processes that occur within these devices. This arrangement is guided by two primary factors: the deposition rate (how fast the molecules are placed) and the surface temperature. Slower deposition rates and higher temperatures facilitate the proper arrangement, resulting in more stable structures. Finding the right time scale for this process is also critical, and ...
Going beyond plastic: Chung-Ang University team explores tara gum as a green polymer
2024-01-15
Synthetic, non-biodegradable plastics are major sources of environmental pollution and have prompted a rising interest in sustainable, biodegradable alternatives derived from natural polymers. “Tara gum,” derived from the seeds of the tara tree (Caesalpinia spinosa), stands out as a promising solution. This natural, water-soluble substance contains polysaccharides (complex carbohydrates), including the widely used “galactomannan,” which is employed in coatings, edible films, and as a stabilizer and thickener. The biocompatibility, biodegradability, and safety of tara gum also make it valuable in industries like food and drug delivery. ...
Sahmyook University researchers open doors to next-generation memristive devices
2024-01-15
Memristive devices constitute a category of devices capable of retaining their internal resistance, thus offering superior performance compared to conventional devices that use integrated circuits. Several materials have been explored to manufacture these devices. In recent years, transition metal oxides have gradually become widely popular for this purpose.
Due to their increasing application in diverse domains like artificial intelligence systems, memristive devices must now overcome several issues related to data retention, endurance, and a large number of conductance states. Moreover, the individual fabrication ...
Study quantifies how aquifer depletion threatens crop yields
2024-01-15
Three decades of data have informed a new Nebraska-led study that shows how the depletion of groundwater — the same that many farmers rely on for irrigation — can threaten food production amid drought and drier climes.
The study found that, due in part to the challenges of extracting groundwater, an aquifer’s depletion can curb crop yields even when it appears saturated enough to continue meeting the demands of irrigation. Those agricultural losses escalate as an aquifer dwindles, the researchers reported, so that its ...
When bees nourish their microbiota
2024-01-15
Two teams from UNIL and EPFL have succeeded in demonstrating that the insect synthesizes nutrients for native gut microbes. A study published in « Nature Microbiology ».
Bacteria have adapted to all terrestrial environments. Some have evolved to survive in the gut of animals, where they play an important role for their host; they provide energy by degrading indigestible food, they train and regulate the immune system, they protect against invasion by pathogenic bacteria, and they synthesize neuroactive molecules that regulate the behavior and cognition of their host.
These are great ...
Accelerating how new drugs are made with machine learning
2024-01-15
Researchers have developed a platform that combines automated experiments with AI to predict how chemicals will react with one another, which could accelerate the design process for new drugs.
Predicting how molecules will react is vital for the discovery and manufacture of new pharmaceuticals, but historically this has been a trial-and-error process, and the reactions often fail. To predict how molecules will react, chemists usually simulate electrons and atoms in simplified models, a process which is computationally expensive and often inaccurate.
Now, researchers from the University of Cambridge ...
Water molecule discovery contradicts textbook models
2024-01-15
Textbook models will need to be re-drawn after a team of researchers found that water molecules at the surface of salt water are organised differently than previously thought.
Many important reactions related to climate and environmental processes take place where water molecules interface with air. For example, the evaporation of ocean water plays an important role in atmospheric chemistry and climate science. Understanding these reactions is crucial to efforts to mitigate the human effect on our planet.
The distribution of ions at the interface of air and water can affect atmospheric processes. However, a precise understanding of ...
U.S. air pollution rates on the decline but pockets of inequities remain
2024-01-15
Over the last decades, air pollution emissions have decreased substantially; however, the magnitude of the change varies by demographics, according to a new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. The results indicate there are racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in air pollution emissions reductions, particularly in the industry and energy generation sectors. The findings are published in the journal Nature Communications.
The research provides a national investigation of air pollution emission changes in the 40 years following the enactment of the Clean Air ...
New Scientific Reports publication reveals major difference in genomes of American and Chinese chestnut
2024-01-15
The chromosomes of American and Chinese chestnut are not so similar after all, at least in one key region of the genome – the nucleolus organizing region (NOR).
The finding, published in a forthcoming article in Scientific Reports, has major implications for anyone with the goal of conferring blight-resistance to American chestnuts through hybridization with the Chinese chestnut.
“This is an unprecedented finding in the field of plant cytology,” says Nurul Faridi, a Forest Service geneticist and lead author of the study.
Traditional ...
Solid-state qubits: Forget about being clean, embrace mess
2024-01-15
New findings debunk previous wisdom that solid-state qubits need to be super dilute in an ultra-clean material to achieve long lifetimes. Instead, cram lots of rare-earth ions into a crystal and some will form pairs that act as highly coherent qubits, shows paper in Nature Physics.
Clean lines and minimalism, or vintage shabby chic? It turns out that the same trends that occupy the world of interior design are important when it comes to designing the building blocks of quantum computers.
How to make qubits that retain their quantum information long enough to be useful is one of the major barriers to practical quantum computing. It’s widely accepted that the ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Post-LLM era: New horizons for AI with knowledge, collaboration, and co-evolution
“Sloshing” from celestial collisions solves mystery of how galactic clusters stay hot
Children poisoned by the synthetic opioid, fentanyl, has risen in the U.S. – eight years of national data shows
USC researchers observe mice may have a form of first aid
VUMC to develop AI technology for therapeutic antibody discovery
Unlocking the hidden proteome: The role of coding circular RNA in cancer
Advancing lung cancer treatment: Understanding the differences between LUAD and LUSC
Study reveals widening heart disease disparities in the US
The role of ubiquitination in cancer stem cell regulation
New insights into LSD1: a key regulator in disease pathogenesis
Vanderbilt lung transplant establishes new record
Revolutionizing cancer treatment: targeting EZH2 for a new era of precision medicine
Metasurface technology offers a compact way to generate multiphoton entanglement
Effort seeks to increase cancer-gene testing in primary care
Acoustofluidics-based method facilitates intracellular nanoparticle delivery
Sulfur bacteria team up to break down organic substances in the seabed
Stretching spider silk makes it stronger
Earth's orbital rhythms link timing of giant eruptions and climate change
Ammonia build-up kills liver cells but can be prevented using existing drug
New technical guidelines pave the way for widespread adoption of methane-reducing feed additives in dairy and livestock
Eradivir announces Phase 2 human challenge study of EV25 in healthy adults infected with influenza
New study finds that tooth size in Otaria byronia reflects historical shifts in population abundance
nTIDE March 2025 Jobs Report: Employment rate for people with disabilities holds steady at new plateau, despite February dip
Breakthrough cardiac regeneration research offers hope for the treatment of ischemic heart failure
Fluoride in drinking water is associated with impaired childhood cognition
New composite structure boosts polypropylene’s low-temperature toughness
While most Americans strongly support civics education in schools, partisan divide on DEI policies and free speech on college campuses remains
Revolutionizing surface science: Visualization of local dielectric properties of surfaces
LearningEMS: A new framework for electric vehicle energy management
Nearly half of popular tropical plant group related to birds-of-paradise and bananas are threatened with extinction
[Press-News.org] Kessler Foundation receives grant to investigate impact of combining aerobic exercise and virtual reality for individuals with multiple sclerosisCurrent treatments to enhance processing speed in MS, including medication and cognitive rehabilitation, are largely ineffective