Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is considered a chronic inflammatory neurological disease of the central nervous system (CNS) in which the immune system attacks the myelin sheath surrounding the neurons. Demyelination reduces neuronal communication and corticospinal integrity, resulting in the various life disrupting symptoms of MS, such as motor and cognitive deficits. Unfortunately, there is no cure for MS, however novel treatment options such as neuromodulation can help slow the rate of progression and delay relapses. A particular neuromodulation technique called translingual neurostimulation (TLNS) delivers non-invasive stimulation to the tongue which increases the activation of particular cranial nerves and may induce neuroplasticity in the brain. However, the exact mechanism of such neuroplastic changes is not well understood. This present study aims to investigate the effect of TLNS delivered by a portable neuromodulation stimulator (PoNS) on the brain using two functional brain imaging techniques: functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). I will use fNIRS to measure localized changes in cortical hemodynamics of the brain in response to three tasks ; breathing and awareness, cognitive and motor tasks ; in the absence and presence of TLNS. TMS will be used to measure the effects of TLNS on corticospinal excitability using the variables resting motor threshold (RMT), active motor threshold (AMT) and recruitment curve. The overall goal of this study is to investigate the acute effects of TLNS via the PoNS device on neural activation and corticospinal excitability using two functional brain imaging techniques, fNIRS and TMS.