Last month’s “Brains on Tap” discussion on Parkinson’s disease is now available to listen to on Ideastream Public Media.
Brains on Tap is a quarterly series of public discussions, held at a brewery or bar, on topics of research being conducted by members of Kent State University’s Brain Health Research Institute (BHRI) and other Northeast Ohio neuroscientists.
The talks are presented in a casual format to take brain health research to the public and make it accessible. The first discussion took place on March 15, on the topic “Parkinson’s Disease and Exercise: Biking to Retrain the Brain,” presented by Angela Ridgel, Ph.D., associate director of Kent State’s Brain Health Research Institute and professor of exercise science and physiology, and Aasef Shaikh, M.D., Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Neurology at Case Western Reserve University, School of Medicine, and a staff neurologist at University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center.
Since 2006, Ridgel has been researching the impact of tandem cycling on Parkinson’s patients and has received a patent for a therapeutic cycle she developed to help ease the symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, known as the Speed Manipulated Adaptive Rehabilitation Therapy (SMART) Cycle. Read more about Ridgel’s research.
Shaikh and Ridgel are currently partners in a four-year grant funded by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, to create a third version of the SMART Cycle.
Brains on Tap is presented in partnership with the BHRI, the Northeast Ohio Medical University and WKSU/Ideastream Public Media.
Jeff St. Clair, WKSU radio host and reporter, served as emcee for the talk and recorded the discussion, a version of which was broadcast on Ideastream’s Sound of Ideas, a news and information program.