Michelle Ploughman MSc, PhD

Dr. Michelle Ploughman is a neuroscientist and physiotherapy researcher focusing on creating novel and potentially powerful rehabilitation interventions that not only restore function but also promote brain plasticity. She has used knowledge gained from my 30 years of experience in stroke and MS rehabilitation to try and solve problems that are important for patients and provide better tools for health providers. She is a Canada Research Chair (Tier II) in Rehabilitation, Neuroplasticity and Brain Recovery and Assistant Professor in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation in the Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University.

Her interest has always been in determining the effects of rehabilitation intensity on recovery of function so her first clinical trial, as part of her Master’s thesis tested Constraint-Induced Movement Therapy, an intense two-week arm and hand treatment, in a stroke inpatient rehabilitation unit. Dr. Ploughman’s doctoral work, funded by a fellowship from the Heart and Stroke Foundation (HSF)/CIHR, explored the mechanistic aspects of exercise intensity on neurotrophins and synaptic and dendritic modification in an animal model of stroke. She completed her post-doctoral fellowship with the endMS Regional Research and Training Centre at Dalhousie University. She held a highly competitive CIHR post-doctoral fellowship, obtained funding, and then capitalized on her extensive national network to conduct the largest survey of health and aging with MS in Canada.

She launched Newfoundland and Labrador’s first rehabilitation research program, opening her laboratory (the Recovery & Performance Laboratory) in our tertiary rehabilitation hospital in 2014. Funded by CFI, the laboratory is equipped with exercise testing and training suite (metabolic cart, treadmill with safety harness, recumbent trainer, heart rate monitors), brain excitability measurement station using Magstim BiStim and Brainsight Neuronavigation, an instrumented walkway to measure gait and balance (Protokinetics), private assessment area with hydraulic plinth and data collection and analysis hardware and software.