Brain injuries affecting the brain’s basal ganglia (BG), due to low oxygen at birth or genetic metabolic disorders, result in movement disorders called dyskinetic cerebral palsy. Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping (QSM) is a new neuroimaging technique that has never been applied to the study of brain structure and basal ganglia injury in children with dyskinetic CP. The aim of this study, which is being co-funded by the Cerebral Palsy Alliance in Australia, is to map injury to basal ganglia (BG) and related structures in 15 children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy (CP) and 15 unaffected children. More precise quantifications of basal ganglia structures and their connections in children with dyskinetic cerebral palsy will help refine targets for therapeutic interventions such as Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS).

Principal Investigator: Dr. Alexander Hoon, MD at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine.
hoon@kennedykrieger.org

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