#44: Interview with Dr. Rini Varghese. Understanding the use of the upper limbs after stroke

Interview with Rini Varghese, physical therapist from India, PhD from the University of Southern California where her dissertation work investigated arm use and non-use, specifically bimanual arm use and motor control, and ipsilesional deficits post-stroke. She has published several articles on these topics with her doctoral advisor, Carolee Winstein. She is currently a postdoctoral research fellow with Amy Bastian at Johns Hopkins University and Kennedy Krieger Institute. References: (1) Winstein (2018). Been there, done that, so what's next for arm and hand rehabilitation in stroke? (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29991146/). (2) Varghese (2021). Corpus callosal microstructure predicts bimanual motor performance in chronic stroke survivors: A preliminary cross-sectional study (https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.05.14.443663v2). (3) Varghese (2020). The probability of choosing both hands depends on an interaction between motor capacity and limb-specific control in chronic stroke (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32880681/). (4) Varghese (2020). Relationship Between Motor Capacity of the Contralesional and Ipsilesional Hand Depends on the Side of Stroke in Chronic Stroke Survivors With Mild-to-Moderate Impairment (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31998211/). (5) Subramaniam (2019). Influence of Chronic Stroke on Functional Arm Reaching: Quantifying Deficits in the Ipsilesional Upper Extremity (https://www.hindawi.com/journals/rerp/2019/5182310/). (6) Maenza (2021). Remedial Training of the Less-Impaired Arm in Chronic Stroke Survivors With Moderate to Severe Upper-Extremity Paresis Improves Functional Independence: A Pilot Study (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33776672/). (7) Buxbaum (2020). Predictors of Arm Nonuse in Chronic Stroke: A Preliminary Investigation (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32476616/).