|
Physiology Home
> People
> Faculty
|
Becky Farley
Research Assistant Professor
Contact Information
Address: PO Box 245051Tucson, AZ 85706
Phone: (520) 626-8773
Email: bfarley@u.arizona.edu
Website: http://www.physiology.arizona.edu/index.php/articles/54
Research Interests
Awards and Honors
2000-2002 Postdoctoral Fellowship, Motor Control Neurobiology Training Program Tucson AZ
1996 Marshall Foundation Scholarship
1996 American Physical Therapy Association Post-Professional Doctoral Scholarship
1993-1996 Predoctoral Trainee, Motor Control Neurobiology Training Program, Tucson AZ
Research Profile
Becky Farley, PhD, MS, PT is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physiology at the
Becky has recently completed her first NIH funded randomized control study investigating a novel, amplitude-based whole body exercise intervention (LSVT® BIG) for people with Parkinson’s disease. She is now proposing to extend this standardized protocol to target amplitude simultaneously across both the speech and limb motor systems (LSVT® BIG and LOUD). Amplitude training teaches patients to recognize the effort for, and use larger whole-body movements and louder speech during everyday living. The treatment protocol incorporates key exercise principles (complexity, intensity, saliency, repetition) proposed from basic and human clinical neuroscience studies to underlie behavioral recovery, neurochemical sparing, and brain reorganization.
My career goal is to translate basic science research concerning exercise in animal models of Parkinson’s disease to efficacious community-based exercise programs for people with PD that are available at the time of diagnosis. To expedite this translational process, we have taken a multi-level approach that focuses on basic science, clinical science, and community-based program development. We are pursuing pilot funding to acquire brain imaging data to demonstrate proof of concept that an intensive PD-specific exercise approach (LSVT® BIG and LOUD) is a legitimate rehabilitation tool to not only improve function, but to also restore function to compromised basal ganglia circuitry in early PD. At the same time, we are developing outcome measures to detect the restoration of function and slowing of motor deterioration in early PD; and characterizing the generalization of training (carryover) to untrained tasks and everyday living. Other research projects are focusing on the development of feedback technology to enhance learning, retention, and increase carryover in people with PD.
In January 2008, I will debut PWR! – The Parkinson Wellness Rehab Program™. This is a 1-year intensive, multidisciplinary, small group, early intervention exercise program that will include assessments and consultations for goal setting, coaching, tune-ups and assessments every three months. This project will provide preliminary data for future studies to demonstrate that timing, intensity, saliency, and continuous access to resources MATTERS and that people with PD CAN get BETTER.
www.pwrprogram.org
Grant Support
SBIR/NSF Dec. 2007 to May 2008
Title: Novel, Flexible, Video-based Tracking as a Rehabilitation Tool
To investigate the usability and feasibility of a motion tracking system to provide customized visual/auditory feedback during functional exercises in a therapy and home environment.
Farley (PI/UA)
Total Budget = $99,969
ASU-UA Collaboration on Biomedical Research Jan. 2007 to Jan. 2009
Title: A digital media based biofeedback system for neural rehabilitation.
The primary goal is to develop a biofeedback system that integrates task specific motor training, cognitive stimuli, and stress monitoring and reduction within an interactive, multimodal environment. In this phase, we will focus on investigating the use of our biofeedback system for Stroke and Parkinson’s disease rehabilitation. The project will foster state-wide collaboration among scientists from engineering, biomedical fields, physiology, exercise science, arts, and media.
Farley (Co-PI/UA)
Total Budget = $399,990
UA Faculty Small Grant Feb. 2007 – Feb. 2008
Title: Dual task assessment to detect impairment and in early Parkinson disease.
We propose to develop dual task (speech and limb) paradigms to saturate attentional resources as an attempt to “unmask” or exaggerate speech and motor symptoms in early PD.
Farley (PI)
Total Budget = $9,740.00
Completed
R21 NS043711 Feb. 2003-Feb. 2006
NIH/NINDS
Title: Think Big—From Voice to Limb Movement Rehabilitation
A preliminary efficacy study to investigate if a standardized efficacious protocol for speech treatment in patients with Parkinson disease will generalize to improvements in upper/lower limb motor control.
Farley (PI)
Total Budget = $ 369,480
Submitted (Not Funded – Ongoing)
ABRC/Arizona Biomedical Research Commission
Title: Network modulation in response to behavioral intervention in early PD – an FDG PET study.
In collaboration with Dr. Eric Reiman and his team at Samaritan PET Center in Phoenix, we will acquire preliminary data using FDG and H2O PET to explore our hypothesis that exercise is a physiological tool that may promote brain plasticity and improve motor function in individuals with early Parkinson disease (PD). We will correlate brain changes with symptomatic improvements in function, quality of life, and disease severity that occur in the short-term.
Farley (PI)
Total Budget $450,000
SUBMITTED OCT 2006, TO BE RESUBMITTED NOV 2007
Teaching
Neuroscience. Northern Arizona University
Department of Physical Therapy, Flagstaff, AZ
Spring Semester 2004 to 2007,10 contact hours;
2003/2002, 8 contact hours; 2001, 12 contact hours
Motor Control Colloquium.
Spring Semester 2005, 2002, 2001, 3 contact hours
LSVT® BIG training and certification course.
A 2-day workshop to teach physical and occupational therapists an intensive amplitude-based training program for the limb motor system as an evidence-based and neuroplasticity-based approach.
For information:
www.lsvt.org
www.gleeco.inc
Professional Activities:
VP of Educational Development for the AZ Chapter of the American Parkinson�s Disease Association (AZ-APDA).
Chaired: POWER over Parkinson's: An educational and wellness resource program.
Since 2005, the Power over Parkinson’s program has become an official beneficiary of “El Tour de Tucson” – the largest perimeter bicycle ride in the US (www.perimeterbicyling.com). Cyclists can join the "Power Over Parkinson's" team and bicycle on November 17, 2007 around the perimeter of Tucson, Arizona or choose the "Indoor El Tour" option and ride a stationary bicycle for "minutes not miles" ANYWHERE on the planet!
Register online and help raise $$$ local exercise programs in Tucson, AZ.
OR!
www.azapda.org
www.bik4pd.org
1-520-326-5400
1-800-541-4960
Invited Presentations
1. Is Exercise Neuroprotective in Parkinson’s disease. Grand Rounds, College of Medicine, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, April, 2, 2004.
2. Your Brain on Exercise! National Parkinson Foundation, 3rd Annual Young-Onset Parkinson Network Conference, Hyatt Regency Hotel in
3. Training BIG and LOUD: A combined approach to PD through speech and physical therapy. World Parkinson Congress,
4. Think BIG! Physical Therapy Intervention Using Amplitude Training in Parkinson’s Disease.
5. Training Amplitude in Parkinson’s disease Across Disease Severity. Rehabilitation Institute of
6. Voice and Whole-Body Exercise in Parkinson Disease. National Parkinson Foundation and Novartis Phamaceuticals Corporation. Live interactive webcast presentation. Parkinson Connection Patient Symposium,
7. Contributions of Neuroanatomy to Understanding Parkinson’s Disease. AZAPTA,
8. Back to Basics: Driving plasticity through environmental, behavioral and neural mechanisms. AZAPTA,
9. Network modulation in response to behavioral intervention in early PD – an FDG PET study. Doings in Motor Control.
10. Get Powered! Live BIG & LOUD. Training of amplitude in Parkinson Disease. AZ Chapter of the APDA,
11. Living Optimally with PD. Partners in Progress.
Abstracts
1. Farley BG,
2. Farley BG (1990) The effects of dorsal rhizotomy on the kinematic parameters of a sit to stand task. Thesis.
3. O’Sullivan MC, Leonard EL, Farley BG, Bloedel JR (1992) Infant stepping: A longitudinal study of locomotor development. Soc Neurosci Abstr 18:1554
4. Farley BG, Koshland GK, Hoit JD (1998)Trunk muscle activity during the simultaneous performance of a trunk holding task and a pulsed expiration task. Soc Neurosci Abstr, Vol 24, Program No. 153
5. Farley BG, Koshland GK,
6. Farley BG (2002) Think big, from voice to limb movement therapy. Proceedings. 7th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing, Program No. 219
7. Farley BG, Koshland GF (2002) Think big, a new physical therapy intervention for bradykinesia. MDS 7th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, Program No. 196
8. Farley BG, Koshland GF, Prior MM (2004) Learning Big™ decrease bradykinesia in the upper and lower limbs in people with Parkinson’s disease. Program No. 874.11. 2004 Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner.
9. Fox CM, Farley BG (2004) Learning Big and Loud™: an integrated rehabilitation approach to Parkinson’s disease. Program No. 874.10, 2004 Abstract Viewer and Itinerary Planner.
10. Farley BG, Koshland GF (2005) Efficacy of a large-amplitude exercise approach for patients with Parkinson’s disease – bradykinesia to balance. 9th International Congress of Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorders, Abstr. #466
11. Farley BG, Koshland GF (2005) Learning Big: Development and preliminary efficacy of a Parkinson’s-specific rehabilitation approach. III STEP, Symposium on Translating Evidence into Practice: Linking Movement Science and Intervention,
12. Farley BF, Fox CM, Collins C (2006) Improving dual task performance in early-onset Parkinson’s Disease: Development of a quantitative measure to detect change across the speech and limb motor systems. Motor Speech Conference, March 23-26,
13. Fox CM, Farley BG, Ramig LO, McFarland D (2006) An integrated speech and physical therapy approach for Parkinson disease: Training BIG and LOUD. Motor Speech Conference, March 23-26,
14. Farley BG, Derosa S, Koshland, GF, Fox CM, Van Gemmert AWA (2006) Training generalized amplitude across motor systems (BIG and LOUD™) transfers to an untrained handwriting task in early Parkinson disease. Program No. 655.13, Society for Neuroscience,
15. Fox CM, Farley BG, Ramig LO, McFarland D (2007) An integrated speech and physical therapy approach for Parkinson disease: Training BIG and LOUD. Mov Disord, 22 (Suppl 16), p S98-S99
About our Lab
As a person with a movement disorder, or as a friend or spouse of someone with a movement disorder, it is important to know what rehabilitation interventions will provide the highest quality of life, the best recovery, or the optimal independence. Our laboratory develops measurement tools, both clinical and physiological, that give us information about how you move. It is important that these measurements are sensitive to change that might occur with exercise, medications or neurosurgical interventions. Clinical measurements are based upon the testers observations of your movements or your perceptions about how you move. A physician or therapist can do them in a clinical office. Physiological measurements require special types of recording devices or cameras and are usually performed in a laboratory setting.
All of these measurements give us information about flexibility, balance, speed, force and coordination. The movements you perform in the lab or clinic are as natural and comfortable as possible, like you would move at home. None of the measurements are painful. We invite you or your family and friends to participate in one, or several, of our ongoing research studies. Currently we are investigating the effect of dual task on your ability to walk, reach or write. We are also investigating the use of visual and auditory feedback to improve movement in people with PD and to help promote access to continuous home exercise programs. Please call us or email if you are interested in participating in a study. Testing sessions last about 2 hours. For more information contact Dr. Becky Farley, or any other of our research staff within the laboratory at 520-626-8773.
Graduate Program Affiliations
Physiological Sciences
Publications
Farley BF, Fox CM, Ramig LO, McFarland DH.. Intensive amplitude-specific therapeutic approaches for Parkinson disease:. Top Ger Rehabil,, in press.
Harralson HH, Teulings HL, Farley BG. Comparison of Handwriting Kinematics in Movement Disorders and Forgery. Proceedings of the 13th Biennial Conference of the,, in press.
Fox, C., Ramig, L., Sapir, S., Farley, B., Halpern, A., & Petska, J. 2006. Voice and Speech Disorders in Parkinson Disease and their Treatment. In Trail, M., Protos, E, & Lai, E (Eds). Neurorehabilitation in Parkinson's Disease: An Evidence Based Treatment Model.
Fox CM Ramig LO Ciucci MR Sapir S McFarland DH Farley BG. Nov 2006. The science and practice of LSVT/LOUD: neural plasticity-principled approach to treating individuals with Parkinson disease and other neurological disorders. Semin Speech Lang, 27:283-99
Farley BG, Koshland GF. Nov 2005. Training BIG to move faster: the application of the speed-amplitude relation as a rehabilitation strategy for people with Parkinson's disease. Exp Brain Res, 167(3):462-7
Koshland GF, Galloway JC, Farley BG. Jul 2005. Novel muscle patterns for arm reaching in persons after cervical spinal cord injury. Exp Brain Res, 164(2):133-47
Farley BG. Sep 2004. Developing Parkinson'-specific exercise programs. J Active Aging, Sept/Oct:22
Farley BG, Sherman S, Koshland GF. Jan 2004. Shoulder muscle activity in Parkinson's disease during multijoint arm movements across a range of speeds. Exp Brain Res, 154:160-75
Displaying 1 - 8 of 11
<< first < prev |
[1] |
2 |
next >
last >>
Faculty information is maintained by the BIO5 Institute.
Faculty may edit their information by logging into BioGate.
© Copyright 2005-2008 Arizona Board of Regents
Arizona Health Sciences Center
1501 N. Campbell, Rm. 4104
PO Box 245051
Tucson, AZ 85724
(520) 626-6511
Webmaster: psioweb@email.arizona.edu