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Dr Ailie Turton

Honorary Senior Research Fellow

email: Ailie.Turton@bris.ac.uk

Priory Road

My Personal Webpage

Biographical details



I qualified as an Occupational Therapist in 1979 and worked in a Care of the Elderly service and a rehabilitation unit for adults with stroke, head injury, and other neurological conditions. I started my research career in 1984 and did three projects at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, all concerned with rehabilitation of hand and arm function following stroke. Research in Occupational Therapy was very new at that time and connections with the then MRC Applied Psychology Unit and the University of Cambridge helped me to develop research skills and to start to bridge the gap between neuroscience and clinical practice in Occupational Therapy. I gained an MSc in Rehabilitation from Polytechnic of East London (1991). In 1992 I joined the Department of Anatomy in Cambridge and studied in Roger Lemon’s motor control group for my PhD (Open University, 1996). I also continued to do some clinical work with stroke patients during that time.

In the summer of 1996 I moved to Bristol and joined the Burden Neurological Institute in the following spring (1997-2004). I joined the Department of Experimental Psychology in September 2004.

I am an Honorary Occupational Therapist in North Bristol NHS Trust and United Bristol Healthcare Trust; A member of the Society for Research in Rehabilitation and the British Neuropsychological Society.


Research interests

Key words: motor control, perception, action, stroke, recovery, rehabilitation

I am interested in the application of basic neuroscience to rehabilitation for optimising recovery following stroke. Throughout my career I have worked with neuroscientists and occupational and physiotherapists to understand recovery and evaluate interventions to improve recovery of function.




Grants Obtained

1997-2000 - Training protocol for improving hand function after stroke: the interplay between neural and behavioural events. The Stroke Association, £122823, awarded to Turton, Butler, Dow and Lemon.

2000-2003 - Does use of a daily muscle stretch regime prevent muscle stiffness in stroke patients? The Stroke Association, 2001, £117686, awarded to Turton, Britton, Dow and Butler.

2002-2003 - Sensorimotor integration in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, Donated Funds Committee Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, NHS Trust, £3580, awarded to McCabe, Harris, Turton and Filipovic.

2004-2006 - Evaluation of a repetitive practice scheme to improve sit to stand performance following stroke. Physiotherapy Research Foundation, £59,576 awarded to Britton, Turton and Harris.

2004-2007 - The effect of using prism adaptation treatment on performance of self- care and mobility tasks in patients with unilateral inattention following stroke. The Stroke Association, £130490 awarded to Turton, Gilchrist and O’Leary.

2005–2006 - Development of a circle drawing test for assessing unilateral spatial attention. North Bristol Research Foundation, £6229 awarded to Turton, Woodward, Smith and Gilchrist.

2005–2006 - Do the use of alternating pressure air mattresses have an adverse effect on posture. Donated Funds Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, NHS Trust, £5925 awarded to Hartshorn, Skalla, Harris, Turton and Okirie.

Collaborations

Liz Britton and Rebecca Woodward, North Bristol NHS Trust
Kelly O’Leary, United Bristol Healthcare NHS Trust
Dr Sasa Filipovic, Burden Neurological Institute, Bristol
Dr Nigel Harris, Deborah Hartshorn, Stephanie Skalla, Dr Ellie Okirie, Dr Candy McCabe, Royal National Hospital for Rheumatic Diseases, Bath
Dr Iain Gilchrist and Dr Alastair Smith, Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Bristol.
Dr Paula Kerston, University of Southampton


Recent Publications

Turton A.J., Butler, S.R., (2001) Referred sensations following stroke. Neurocase, 7, 397-405

van Vliet, P.M., Turton A., (2001) Directions in retraining reaching. Critical Reviews in Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine, 13 (4), 313-338

Turton A, Pomeroy V, (2002) When should upper limb function be trained after stroke? - Evidence for and against early intervention. NeuroRehabilitation 17(3), 215-224

Turton AJ, Butler SR, (2004) A multiple case design experiment to investigate the performance and neural effects of a programme for training hand function after stroke, Clinical Rehabilitation; 18: 754-763

Turton AJ, Britton E, (2005) A pilot randomised controlled trial of a daily muscle stretch regime to prevent contractures in the arm after stroke. Clinical Rehabilitation 19: 600-612

Turton AJ, McCabe CS, Harris N, Filipovic SR. (2007) Sensorimotor integration in Complex Regional Pain Syndrome: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Pain; 127 (3):270-75

Recent published conference contributions

Harris N, Britton L, Morrell E, Davis L, Turton A. The use of an Activpal activity monitor for measuring the frequency of sit to stand in inpatient stroke patients. Proceedings of Society for Research in Rehabilitation Summer Meeting, Southampton, Clinical Rehabilitation 2006; 20:637

Britton E, Morrell E, Davis L, Stewart R, Turton A, Harris N. An exploratory randomised controlled trial of extra practice in sit to stand (STS) given to stroke patients in hospital. Proceedings of Society for Research in Rehabilitation Winter Meeting 2007, Sheffield, Clinical Rehabilitation in press

Turton AJ, O’Leary K, Gabb J, Gilchrist I. Prism adaptation treatment in unilateral neglect: the effect on self care and mobility. Proceedings of Rehabilitation Conference Rotorua, February 2007, Disability and Rehabilitation, in press

External Responsibilities

• Member of Council, Society for Research in Rehabilitation
• Member of Rehabilitation Clinical Studies Group Stroke Research Network

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