The majority of immune development and the ability to ‘tolerate’ food proteins occurs after birth, during the period when most infants’ are consuming human milk. The omega-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acid, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), is required for immune function but Canadian have one of the lowest contents of DHA in their breast milk in the world. The content of this fatty acid is highly variable in breast milk and depends primarily on dietary intake. Using information from the ...

The following posters will be presented:11:00am-11:05amThe Potential of Probiotics in Preventing Diet-Induced Mitochondrial DysfunctionPresented by: Antoine St-Amant11:05am-11:10amBody composition asymmetries in university ice hockey players and their implications for lower back pain and lower limb injuryPresented by: Tiziana Resta11:10am-11:15amCellular senescence is similar between regio...

The following posters will be presented:2:45pm-2:50pmThe Child Focused Injury Risk Screening Tool (ChildFIRST) - Normative Values, Correlations, and Sex Differences for a group of Children aged 8-12Presented by: Matthew B. Miller2:50pm-2:55pmArt-based Rehabilitation Therapy (ART) for Sensorimotor Recovery Post-stroke: A Pilot StudyPresented by: April Christiansen2:55pm-3:00pmWhite matter micros...

Sleep is important for memory consolidation and cognitives performances during the day. There is increasing evidence that brain oscillations during sleep play a central role in such processes. This presentation will review recent work from our lab on the interplay between brain rhythms during sleep, memory consolidation and age-related cognitive decline. We will also discuss recent data showing the impact of sleep disturbances on cognitive functions, as well as the effects o...

Regional brain function is determined by its local structure and connectivity. I will present work from our lab that strives to quantify connectivity for applications in healthy development and understanding the impact of disease - focusing on understanding normative cerebellar connectivity and quantifying the impact of stroke. I will also touch on some recent work linking interhemispheric functional connectivity to bimanual motor control in older adults.

With aging, there are declines in sensorimotor functions such as fine motor control, gait and balance. Moreover, the largest age differences in brain structure are observed in the motor and somatosensory cortices. A key question of interest is why some individuals are more resilient than others to these functional declines. I will describe my findings showing that, in some cases, individual differences in sensorimotor system structure and function are associated with motor performance meas...

Safe mobility is vital to the functional independence of older adults. Executive functions such as working memory updating and dividing attention play an increasingly important role in supporting mobility in old age. This talk describes recent studies that examine the influence of cognitive and sensory challenges to complex motor performance. Featured are recent cognitive training and exercise intervention studies designed to target executive functions to improve mobility and cognition in old...

Disorders of gait and cognition are central to many age related conditions and diseases. While there are medications available to treat some of these disorders, they have significant side effects and limited effectiveness. A better understanding of the inter-relationship between motor and cognitive function in aging may help guide the development of new therapeutic approaches for conditions such as frailty, mobility disability and dementia. In this talk, I will discuss non-pharmacological ...