Aiko K. Thompson, PhD

Associate Professor
Medical University of South Carolina
Charleston, South Carolina

EDUCATION/TRAINING
B.A. 03/1997 in Kinesiology/Phys. Ed. at Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan
M.A. 03/1999 in Kinesiology/Phys. Ed. at Nara Women's University, Nara, Japan
Ph.D. 11/2004 in Neuroscience at University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
Postdoc 10/2007 in Neuroscience at Wadsworth Center, Albany, NY, USA

Aiko Thompson received her Ph.D. in Neuroscience from the University of Alberta, Canada, and did post-doctoral training at the Wadsworth Center in Albany, NY. She developed the original human H-reflex and MEP operant conditioning protocols and conducted the first H-reflex conditioning and MEP conditioning studies in people with spinal cord injury, in which successful conditioning improved people’s walking. Her lab’s research goals are to understand the human CNS plasticity related to motor control and to learn how to guide such plasticity to help restore useful movement function in people after injuries to the nervous system.