My name is Iain and live in Northeast Scotland.

wheelsgalore100

My name is Iain and live in Northeast Scotland.  As you can see I am a George Clooney look-alike!!:)

I suffer from Cerebral Palsy, as a result of an illness.   I have been studying with the Open University for a number of years and am currently studying for my Ph.D.  My area of research is in neuroscience and my doctorate concerns visual-perceptual impairment (VPI) in Cerebral Palsy.   Essentially, there are two parts: qualitative, which is done online, citing various scientific papers, and a quantitative element, where I generate data.  I wonder if anyone could help me please with this aspect.   Whilst, this might be a few years down the line, I want things in place as much as I can.  This, too, will be done online and I have to consider what aspect of Cerebral Palsy I could test, with regards to non-Cerebral Palsy suffers.  I would write a computer program (who said doing a PhD is straight forward!).  My intentions is to write a simple program, which is easy to use (user friendly), short in duration and fun.  I wondered about testing coordination, such as a simple computer game, but have not finally made my mind up? All the data generated will be destroyed and would not ask for anyone's personal details, except whether they are male or female and, possibly, the age range they fell into e.g. 10-20.

 Another aspect to my thesis will be medicinal chemistry, of a few of the drugs taken to manage some of the symptoms of CP.  Drugs, such as the antispasmodic Baclofen, and anticonvulsants.   I do not take any drugs myself, apart from coffee, so had to find out a few common drugs, when I studied for my MSc.  Maybe there are newer antispasmodics, which people take, to manage spasticity and other symptoms, such as epilepsy and drooling. Baclofen is an older drug and know it has been updated with PAMS (positive allosteric modulators), which targets specific brain areas.

Naturally, there are many aspects I cannot cover, in my thesis, but will have to concentrate on certain aspects.  I would, therefore, be extremely grateful if anyone could help in any way. 

Alex

Hi Iain,

Welcome to the community! Your PhD sounds very interesting!

I've moved your post to our cerebral palsy group, so hopefully more people can see it. 

How specifically can we help? Are you looking for people with cerebral palsy to help you gather the data you need?