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Who Is Lynn Rogers?

Former Director of the Neuralplasticity Laboratory at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab.  Dr. Rogers was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Faculty in the Interdepartmental Neuroscience Program (NUIN) at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine for 11 years.  A BigTen loyal, but rare species of Fighting BadgerCat, Dr. Rogers holds a PhD in Biomedical Engineering from Northwestern University, MS degrees in Kinesiology and Biomedical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, and a BS in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois.  Her research has used non-invasive brain stimulation to understand how the brain controls complex actions, and has aimed to develop movement and stimulation based techniques for enhancing brain recovery after neurological injury and disease.  In recent years, her work has focused on how sex-specific hormones impact rehabilitation, turning a critical eye to optimizing therapeutic care for women of all ages. 

Dr. Rogers is a long time athlete and sports enthusiast.  With her initial degrees in Kinesiology she focused on Biomechanics and Exercise Physiology, interests that stemmed from her experience with the physics-in-action sport of gymnastics both as a competitor and coach.  As an often injured athlete and later as coach of a nationally successful gymnastics team, she had first-hand experience with the impact quality rehabilitation therapy can have, and the challenges of finding optimal strategies to help each individual.  She began running as a graduate student, and that eventually morphed into triathlon, and Crossfit as added passions.  For four years she served as coach, pacer, and organizer for Nike's Chicago Marathon training program, while also coaching an afterschool program for middle-school girls through Girls On the Run.   To date she has completed 18 marathons in 4 countries, a full Ironman distance triathlon, 6 half-iron distance triathlons, and has three times qualified for the age group National Championships in triathlon.  Two of those marathons, and one National Championships qualifier were accomplished just one year after having been paralyzed by the rare neurological disease, CIDP.  Her athletic comeback was featured in national commercials for Bank of America, publications including Runner’s World, ESPN, and Women’s Running, as well as marketing videos for SRALab.  Dr. Rogers is a passionate advocate for the life changing benefits of pursuing fitness and exercise goals, for the advancement of women in both STEM and athletics, and generating awareness and research funding for rare demyelinating diseases.

Select Publications

 

Complete List of Published Work in MyBibliography

My Career in Rehabilitation Neuroscience Spans Four Major Areas

1. The initial goals of my research have been to better understand how the brain controls lower limb movement following neurological injury and disease. I have used cortical and peripheral non-invasive stimulation techniques to probe motor circuits in the brain and spinal cord in order to reveal potential underpinnings of disordered movement.  We have developed novel TMS paradigms to probe the lower limb motor cortex that have brought to light both maladaptive plasticity, and the capacity for appropriate neuroplastic change following stroke.  These techniques have broad applications for understanding modulatory influences along the neuromechanical axis of the lower limb.

Simis M, Di Lazzaro V, Kirton A, Pennisi G, Bella R, Kim Y.-H, Takeuchi N, Khedr EM, Rogers LM, Harvey R, Koganemaru S, Turman B, Tarlaci S, Gagliardi RJ, Fregni F (2016). Neurophysiological measurements of affected and unaffected motor cortex from a cross-sectional, multi-center individual stroke patient data analysis study. Clinical Neurophysiology 46(1): 53-61. doi:10.1016/j.neucli.2016.01.003. PMID: 26970808

Rogers LM, Brown DA, Stinear JW (2011) The effects of paired associative stimulation on knee extensor motor excitability of individuals post stroke: A pilot study. Clinical Neurophysiology 122 (6):1211-1218.  doi: 10.1016/j.clinph.2010.11.006. Epub 2010 Dec 3. PubMed PMID: 21130032.

Madhavan S, Rogers LM, Stinear JW (2010) A paradox: after stroke the non-lesioned lower limb motor cortex may be maladaptive. European Journal of Neuroscience 32 (6): 1032-1039.  doi: 10.1111/j.1460-9568.2010.07364.x. Epub 2010 Aug 16. PubMed PMID: 20722719; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC2943014.

Rogers LM, Madhavan S, Roth HR, Stinear JW (2011) Transforming neurorehabilitation of walking following stroke: The promise of non-invasive brain stimulation – a review. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience 29: 507-516. doi: 10.3233/RNN-2011-0625. Review. PubMed PMID: 22204927

Mirbagheri MM, Duffell LD, Kotsapouikis D, Rogers LM (2014). Reciprocal inhibition becomes facilitation after spinal cord injury: Clinical application of a system identification approach. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014 Aug;2014:4395-8. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944598. PubMed PMID: 25570966.

2.     I have used non-invasive stimulation techniques not just to probe the cortico-motor system, but to plastically modulate cortical excitability in ways that can help reveal the role of specific circuits, and serve as adjuvants to rehabilitation therapy across multiple domains. Using high-frequency rTMS we were able to modulate cortical-hippocampal networks and reveal their specific role in associative memory.  For patients following stroke, we’ve used low-frequency rTMS combined with targeted occupational therapy to improve upperlimb function, and have used transcranial direct current stimulation to improve speech therapy.

DJ Edwards, CY Liu, K Dunning, F Fregni, J Laine, BE Leiby, LM Rogers, …, (2023). Electric field navigated 1-Hz rTMS for poststroke motor recovery: The E-FIT randomized controlled trial. Stroke. 2023. 54 (9), 2254-2264 doi:10.1161/STROKEAHA.123.043164. PubMed PMID: 37577801

Harvey RL, Edwards D, Dunning K, Fregni F, Stein J, Laine J, Rogers LM, Vox F, Durand-Sanchez A, Bockbrader M, Goldstein LB, Francisco GE, Kinney CL, Liu CY; NICHE Trial Investigators (2018).  Randomized Sham-Controlled Trial of Navigated Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for Motor Recovery in Stroke. Stroke. 2018 Sep;49(9):2138-2146. doi: 10.1161/STROKEAHA.117.020607. PubMed PMID: 30354990

Rogers LM, Dhaher YY (2017).  Female sex hormones modulate the response to low-frequency rTMS in the human motor cortex.  Brian Stimulation 10(4):850-852. doi: 10.1016/j.brs.2017.02.010. PubMed PMID: 28330632.

Wang JX, Rogers LM, Gross EZ, Ryals AJ, Dokucu ME, Brandstatt KL, Hermiller MS, Voss JL (2014). Targeted enhancement of cortical-hippocampal brain networks and associative memory. Science. 2014 Aug 29;345(6200):1054-7. doi: 10.1126/science.1252900. PubMed PMID: 25170153; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4307924.

Ryals AJ, Rogers LM, Gross EZ, Polnaszek KL, Voss JL (2015). Associative Recognition Memory Awareness Improved by Theta-Burst Stimulation of Frontopolar Cortex. Cereb Cortex. 2015 Jan 9. pii: bhu311. [Epub ahead of PRINT ] PubMed PMID: 25577574.

Harvey RL, Roth HR, Tappan RS, Kermen R, Laine J, Stinear JW, Rogers LM (2014).  The Contrastim Stroke Study: Improving Hand and Arm Function After Stroke With Combined Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation and Task-Oriented Therapy-A Pilot Study.  Stroke 45 (Suppl 1), A152-A152.

Cherney LR, Babbitt EM, Hurwitz R, Rogers LM, Stinear J, Wang X, Harvey RL, Parrish T (2013) Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation and Aphasia: The Case of Mr. C.  Topics in Stroke Rehabilitation 20(1): 5-21. doi: 10.1310/tsr2001-5. Review. PubMed PMID: 23340067; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC3897156.

3.     Building on the broad applicability of non-invastive stimulation to probe influences on cortico-motor excitability, I have worked with colleagues studying tendon-transfer surgical techniques to restore elbow extension following spinal cord injury.  We were able to elucidate the role of posture in modulating excitability and responsiveness of the transferred muscle.

Peterson CL, Rogers LM, Bednar MS, Bryden AM, Keith MW, Perreault EJ, Murray WM (2017) Posture-Dependent Corticomotor Excitability Differs Between the Transferred Biceps in Individuals with Tetraplegia and the Biceps of Nonimpaired Individuals. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2017 Apr;31(4):354-363. doi: 10.1177/1545968316680488. PubMed PMID: 27932695

Peterson CL, Rogers LM, Mogk JP, Bednar MS, Bryden AM, Keith MW, Perreault EJ, Murray WM (2014). Posture-dependent changes in corticomotor excitability of the biceps after spinal cord injury and tendon transfer. Conf Proc IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2014 Aug;2014:4302-5. doi: 10.1109/EMBC.2014.6944576. PubMed PMID: 25570944.

Mogk JPM, Rogers LM, Murray WM, Perreault EJ, Stinear JW (2014).  Corticomotor excitability of arm muscles modulates according to static position and orientation of the upper limb.  Clinical Neurophysiology. 125 (10), 2046-2054. PMID: 24630543

4.   Of course non-invasive stimulation isn’t the only technique that can be used to study the underpinnings of disordered motor control.  I have extensively examined motor activation patterns along with joint and limb kinetics during both cyclic lower limb activity and isometric efforts to reveal disordered patterns.

Rogers LM, Stinear JW, Lewis GN, Brown DA (2011) Descending control to the non-paretic limb degrades the cyclic activity of paretic leg muscles. Human Movement Sciences 30 (6): 1225-1244. doi: 10.1016/j.humov.2011.03.001. Epub 2011 May 20. PubMed PMID: 21601300.

Rogers LM, Brown DA, Gruben KG (2004) Foot force direction control during leg pushes against fixed and moving pedals in persons post-stroke. Gait and Posture 19(1): 58-68. PubMed PMID: 14741304.

Schmidt MW. Lopez-Ortiz C. Barrett PS, Rogers LM, Gruben KG (2003) Foot force direction in an isometric pushing task: prediction by kinematic and musculoskeletal models. Experimental Brain Research 150 (2): 245-54. PubMed PMID: 12682808.

Gruben KG, Rogers LM, Schmidt MW (2003) Direction of foot force for pushes against a fixed pedal: role of effort level. Motor Control 7 (3): 229-41. PubMed PMID: 12893955.

Gruben KG, Rogers LM, Schmidt MW, Tan L (2003) Direction of foot force for pushes against a fixed pedal: variation with pedal position. Motor Control 7 (4): 362-77. PubMed PMID: 14999134.