Research summary
Pain is one of the most common and disabling symptoms after a major physical trauma, such as a spinal cord injury or amputation. Its prevalence is particularly high in the early stages after such an injury, when patients are most likely to be receiving rehabilitation therapy. As Canada Research Chair in Sensori-Motor Rehabilitation and Pain, Dr. Catherine Mercier is looking at how the body processes pain in order to find ways to make rehabilitation strategies more effective.
She and her research team are studying how the sensorimotor and nociceptive systems interact with each other in response to a lesion, disease or intervention. (The sensorimotor system processes sensory information and controls motor functions. The nociceptive system is a subset of the sensorimotor system, and it alerts the body to potential harm or injury.) Mercier and her research team hope their findings can maximize the effectiveness of various rehabilitation interventions.