Jump to content
HomeCNAP research

Stories

Who is CNAP? What drives us? What are we currently working on? On this page, some of our team members give an insight into CNAP.

Armita Faghani Jadidi

Armita Faghani Jadidi, PhD fellow

My main interest is to explore the underlying brain mechanism in a phantom limb pain process. It may contribute to finding related biomarkers and based on that possible enhanced treatment for this phenomenon.

The aim of my current study is to investigate the effects of different electrical stimulation patterns on excitability of the corticospinal tract in healthy subjects and amputees with phantom limb pain. This can lead to a better understanding of the sensory-motor cortex relationship and finding a possible optimum pattern to enhance phantom limb pain relief.

Jenny Tigerholm

Jenny Tigerholm, Assistant Professor

My main interest is to study excitability alterations occurring in small fiber neuropathy patients‚ developing related diagnostic tools and providing guidance for the development of new treatments.

Through computational modeling, I am studying nerve fiber activation to improve the Perception Threshold Tracking (PTT) technique, which is an indirect method to measure the excitability of nociceptor fibers.

Najah Al Hajri

Najah Al Hajri, PhD Fellow

I am interested in exploring changes in brain connectivity as an index of pain neuroplasticity. Namely, how brain networks reorganize themselves in response to pain. Therefore, I am working now on assessing changes in brain resting state functional connectivity in response to short-term and long-term capsaicin-induced pain using EEG, as well as exploring methods to counteract these changes such as motor learning.

This could shed more light on the underlying neuroplastic mechanisms associated with the transition from acute to prolonged pain from a network perspective, which may contribute to designing more effective rehabilitation interventions.

Marco Rizzo

Marco Rizzo, PhD Fellow

I am interested in exploring the neurophysiological and psychological features of the human brain and how the manipulation of these characteristics affects the individual pain perception.

My research line aims to investigate - through the EEG - the cortical interaction occurring with the combination of illusory movements obtained with a mirror box and actual painful stimuli. The following objective is to probe whether a mirror box training in healthy subjects causes a neuroplasticity process in the sensory-motor cortex. The discoveries might be fundamental to develop therapies for patients with phantom limb pain.

Taha Janjua

Taha Janjua, Research assistant

What I find intriguing is the ability to understand and in turn affect the enigma of complex brain mechanisms such as neuroplasticity and pain. I believe that research on brain functionality during pain processing can play a key role in future neuro-rehabilitation.

Currently, I am working on the assessment of intracortical information recorded from a large animal pain model that involves electrical peripheral nerve stimulation.