M. Felice Ghirlardi, M.D.

Dr. Ghilardi, a researcher and a neurologist by training, and her group is studying motor control and brain plasticity. In particular, their studies are focused on how the brain produces movements in normal human subjects and in patients with Parkinson and other neurological disorders. They have been investigating the interaction of non-motor processes with the motor system; how the memories that are relevant to movement execution are formed, preserved and destroyed and how they could be enhanced. They have found that sleep, in particular slow wave activity, plays an important role in the enhancement and disruption of these memories. Major goals of their research are: to define the specific mechanisms through which sleep enhances motor memories; to enhance motor memories by inducing slow wave activity sleep.