Neural injury, whether from trauma (stroke, spinal cord injury, traumatic brain injury) or degenerative conditions (Parkinson disease, multiple sclerosis, Huntington disease) is associated with a primary neurologic injury as well as a cascade of secondary neurologic changes that manifest as impairments and functional deficits. Understanding the mechanisms of neurologic damage is critical to understanding these conditions.

Further, over the last two decades, the fields of neurologic physical therapy and neuroscience have advanced our understanding of movement enhanced neural recovery and the neurologic mechanisms that support or hinder recovery. Of interest as well, are possible methods of inducing neural protective mechanisms that may delay the onset of symptoms from degenerative disease or secondary damage from a primary injury. Notably, neural plasticity can be adaptive, providing the basis for recovery, or maladaptive, impeding recovery. Thus, the future of effective physical therapy treatment methods rests in maximizing adaptive neuroplasticity and avoiding activities that might induce maladaptive plasticity. This two-day course will discuss the relative mechanisms of neural injury, adaptive and maladaptive neuroplasticity as well as synthesize the evidence related to treatment approaches that have been found to prevent neural injury, maximize neural recovery or induce maladaptive plasticity. Multiple case studies will provide the basis for discussions of treatment approaches for inducing adaptive plasticity.

Course Instructions

1. Click on the Contents tab to watch the course recording.
2. Click the Take Quiz button to complete the assessment. Learners will have 3 attempts to pass and must answer at least 70% of questions correctly.
3. Click Fill Out Survey under the Evaluation listing to provide valuable course feedback. Scroll down on all questions as there may be answer options that expand past the size of the window.
4. Click the View/Print Your Certificate button under the Certificate listing. You can view/print your certificate at any time by visiting the APTA Learning Center and clicking the CEU Certificate/Transcript link on the left-hand side of the page. 

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