Baycrest

In 2010, Dr. Levine was engaged in two cognitive rehabilitation trials: one in patients with traumatic brain injury; the other involving people diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. A third trial, focused on patients affected by stroke, is starting. "These conditions cause diffuse damage in the brain that we know interferes with connectivity and hinders executive functions – things like planning, staying on task and making decisions," he says. Dr. Levine and his team have developed and are testing specific short-term interventions designed to help people improve executive functions. Stroke research at Baycrest is supported by the Heart and Stroke Foundation Centre for Stroke Recovery. In 2009, Dr. Levine was chosen to lead the Centre's Baycrest site. While Dr. Levine's career at Baycrest spans 16 years so far, a new generation of stroke researchers is arriving. Dr. Asaf Gilboa, who joined the Institute in 2010, is currently working to develop new and better interventions for stroke rehabilitation based on a clearer understanding of how the brain acquires memories. In collaboration with his Institute mentor, senior scientist Dr. Morris Moscovitch, and graduate student Tali Sharon at the University of Haifa in Israel, Dr. Gilboa is studying patients with amnesia – severe memory loss – caused by brain damage following heart attack or stroke. "Using learning principles that children employ when they learn new information, we were able to induce learning in people with severe amnesia," explains Dr. Gilboa, who is also an assistant professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Toronto. "We do this by encouraging the use of healthy parts of the brain instead of those that fail to work in these patients." As a recent arrival, how would Dr. Gilboa describe the research opportunities he has found at Baycrest? "It's the best place for doing this kind of science," he says. "Not just because of technical resources, but because of the intellectual resources and the atmosphere of collaboration. That's what attracts and sustains us as scientists." Dr. Asaf Gilboa Baycrest scientists join in quest to improve stroke recovery and rehabilitation Stroke is the leading cause of adult neurological disability, the second leading cause of dementia and the third leading cause of death in North America. Under the umbrella of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (HSF), 19 core scientists at three centres — Baycrest, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and the University of Ottawa/Ottawa Health Research Institute — are working on a variety of stroke-related research. Scan this QR code with your smart phone to learn more about brain function and behaviour. research.baycrest.org/annualreport 17

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