Researcher Summary
Despite the fact that many treatment techniques exist for patients who have swallowing impairment as a result of neurologic injury, there is very little evidence for these treatments. This is due, in large part, to the immense task inherent in trying to determine how our brain controls this complex behaviour.
Related to these limitations in swallowing literature, I have 3 distinct, but interdependent areas of research that are encompassed by my overall research question 'how does the brain control swallowing?'. I have completed and published numerous investigations aimed at documenting the effects of various swallowing treatments on swallowing behaviours. As part of ensuring the integrity of these treatment investigations, I have also completed and published many methodological explorations, aimed at providing reliability, validity, and variance estimates for the tools used to measure swallowing outcomes. After completing my post-doctoral fellowship, my research interests have expanded to incorporate motor-learning principles into the treatment of swallowing disorders. Limb rehabilitation is entrenched in a long history of empirical evidence using motor learning principles. Guided by this theoretical framework of physical rehabilitation, and utilizing recent collaborations I have made with other disciplines, many of my research endeavors are now aimed at exploring how the concepts of limb rehabilitation can influence our management of swallowing impairment.
