December 2021
Welcome!
Welcome to CP-NET Today! In this issue, we are excited to highlight this year's CP-NET Science and Family Day online event and share videos, webinars, upcoming conferences, and more!
The CP-NET Today! newsletter will keep you updated on exciting research and developments in the area of Cerebral Palsy (CP) research funded by the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), as well as news and events of interest to the CP-NET community. Please feel free to share this newsletter with family, friends and colleagues. They can subscribe to the CP-NET Today! e-Newsletter for free by registering here. Don't forget to check the cp-net.org website for more great resources on CP.
On behalf of the CP-NET Investigators, we wish you and your family well this holiday season. Happy New Year and enjoy the holidays!
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Looking into the Future of CP-NET
Our CP-NET Annual Workshop, in collaboration with the Ontario Brain Institute (OBI), was held virtually on November 29th. The workshop is an opportunity for our CP-NET community to come together to discuss our projects for the upcoming year. As we move into our last year of CP-NET’s current funding cycle, the focus was planning for our future. Investigators, families and young adults living with CP, and trainees shared their ideas during our creative brainstorming breakout sessions on how to push our projects forward, and to create synergy within our network and beyond. We look forward to continuing to engage our network in these discussions in 2022, as we shape the future of CP-NET.
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Upcoming Meet the Expert Series |
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CP-NET is hosting its third online Meet the Expert Series with Drs. Elaine Biddiss, Hana Alazem, and Anna McCormick in the New Year. They will answer your questions on the neurotechnology platform, specifically from their 2021 Science and Family session that you can watch here. In advance of the series, we encourage to ask questions here.
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Community Profile
Jeffrey Mitsuo, Local Artist
by Jake Stevens
Jeffrey Mitsuo is an artist from Ajax, Ontario. Jeff was born with cerebral palsy and as a result of his CP he is unable to talk and has a difficult time performing fine motor tasks. However, two years ago Jeff found a love for painting and hasn’t let his physical limitations get in the way of his creative spirit. Click here to read the full article.
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Article Synopsis:
Jeff's friend Jake Stevens has a creative background and wanted to take this opportunity to introduce Jeff to painting during the pandemic. It didn’t take long before Jeff began experimenting with different colours, brushes, and brush strokes. Jake created @paintwithjeff on an online video platform (TikTok) so he could edit video clips of Jeff’s artistic process and send the videos to his family. Little did they know, this would be the beginning of Jeff’s social media fame, and journey to over 1 million followers on TikTok! In March of 2020 Jeff opened an Etsy art shop, MitsuoArt, as a way to sell prints to a handful of fans who asked for a piece of his work.
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Jeffrey Mitsuo sharing the Summer Sunrise painting available on his Etsy shop |
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CP-NET Science & Family Day: Video recordings now available |
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8th Annual CP-NET Science and Family Day
October 23, 2021
We had our 8th annual CP-NET Science and Family Day on October 23rd, 2021. We had approximately 150 attendees participate, with representation from all over the world!
To watch the sessions from the event, please select the videos below.
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Opening Remarks: Dr. Darcy Fehlings |
Keynote: Dr. Evelyn Constantin |
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Art Component: Jake Stevens and Jeffrey Mitsuo |
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Watch the breakout room sessions below! |
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Clinical Database
Dr. Darcy Fehlings
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Neurotechnology
Drs. Hana Alazem, Elaine Biddiss, and Anna McCormick
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Youth Health and Wellness
Dr. Jan Willem Gorter
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Social Determinants of Health
Dr. Noha Gomaa
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Genomics
Dr. Richard Wintle and Stacy Hewson
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Ontario Brain Institute Sleep Study Webinar |
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Parents and families of children with ADHD, autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy, intellectual disability, and OCD who have sleep problems: You are not alone! In this special seminar, hear from a panel of experts describing new findings about the impact of sleep problems on children’s mental health and quality of life, and discussing common ways to improve and encourage better sleep across neurodevelopmental disorders. |
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Ontario Brain Institute - Discovery Starts with You! |
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The Potential of Data Sharing: What Data Means for your Brain Health
When you agree to share your results with other researchers, you become part of something bigger. Something that is providing faster and better outcomes for patients. Together, across OBI research programs, and with patient and community advisory members,OBI is creating a series of videos and podcast to acknowledge your contribution to transforming health for people with brain disorders. Discovery starts with you.
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Ontario Brain Institute Public Talks
February 23rd | 7:00 - 8:00 pm EST
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One in three Canadians will be impacted by a brain disorder at some point in their lives. That’s a lot of us.
Understanding the experiences of those living with brain disorders – cerebral palsy, Parkinson’s, and depression, to name just a few – begins with listening to their individual voices and acknowledging their unique journeys. Three Lives, Many Stories, the final public talk in the Ontario Brain Institute’s 2021-22 Wellness Series, will focus on first-hand accounts of three such individuals.
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Participate in research!
MyStory Project
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The MyStory Project is recruiting adolescents and young adults (13-30 years) with cerebral palsy to participate in a research study exploring physical and mental health.
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Recent Publications by CP-NET Members! |
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The goal of this study was to examine changes in the ability to process sensory information in children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (HCP), before and after Constraint Induced Movement Therapy (CIMT). CIMT, provided in a camp setting, helps the child to intensely practice activities with their hemiplegic hand. This particular CIMT program was enhanced to include lots of different sensory experiences such as touching hot and cold objects. Measures looking at sensory information processing using a procedure called Magnetoencephalography (MEG) were completed on 12 children before and after they completed the CIMT program. The research found improvements in children’s ability to feel touch pressure (tactile registration) and enhanced processing of sensory information. This research is important because movement control and sensation are linked. If a child can feel their hand better it can help them move their hand in an easier manner.
Authors: Cecilia Jobst, Samantha J.D'Souza, Natasha Causton, Sabah Master, Lauren Switzer, Douglas Cheyne, and Darcy Fehlings.
Most children with hemiplegic Cerebral Palsy (CP) can run, jump, and get around independently, but they can also experience non-motor impairments that affect their everyday life. The skills needed to participate in and adapt to activities of everyday life are called adaptive behaviour. In this study, we explored factors related to the adaptive behaviour of children with hemiplegic CP. Using information collected from 59 children, we found that a third scored below the normal range on a measure of adaptive behaviour. Poorer communication ability and an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis in addition to CP were associated with lower adaptive skills. The findings suggest that clinicians and researchers need to look beyond motor functioning when working with individuals with CP.
Authors: Sandra Abdel Malek, Ronit Mesterman, Lauren Switzer, Briano DiRezze, Gabrielle deVeber, Darcy Fehlings, Yona Lunsky, Michelle Phoenix, and Jan Willem Gorter.
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STAY CONNECTED WITH CP-NET! |
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