Rehabilitation and Participation Science
Program in Occupational Therapy
Dr. Philip's areas of interest include motor skill learning, functional rehabilitation and compensation after unilateral hand impairment, and how hand dominance interacts with function and rehabilitation.
Dr. Philip directs the Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Laboratory, which focuses on the interaction between hand dominance, brain lateralization, and rehabilitation following unilateral impairment such as stroke, amputation, or nerve injury. He combines behavioral, neuroimaging, and neuromodulation methods to understand how the brain and body change after impairment, and how they can further change during rehabilitation. Toward this end, he is also interested in the assessment of sensory and motor function in the hand, and the cortical asymmetries that underlie handedness and hand-specific learning. By understanding the cortical asymmetries that drive performance and participation, and how this organization changes in pathological conditions, he hopes to improve rehabilitation and care for patients with unilateral impairment, especially of the dominant hand.
Dr. Philip is co-coursemaster for the Rehabilitation & Participation Science Research Seminar and coursemaster of the Biospsychosocial Factors Affecting Performance PhD courses. He also mentors MSOT and OTD students who work in his laboratory.
2009: PhD in neuroscience, Brown University
2002: BA in cognitive science (with correlate sequence in Biology), Vassar College
Dr. Philip began his scientific career in the lab of John Donoghue at Brown University, where he implanted electrode arrays into the motor cortex of non-human primates to study the cortical control of movement. His dissertation work identified how cortical areas interact differently when performing continuous feedback-driven movements, as opposed to simple ballistic linear movements. In 2009, Dr. Philip moved into human research when he joined Dr. Scott Frey at the University of Oregon as a postdoctoral fellow. Over the following five years, Dr. Philip followed Dr. Frey to the University of Missouri and Washington University to continue their collaboration and investigate how amputees' brain and behavior change after their injuries, and how these changes can alter anew after restoration of the hand via transplant or replant. He started the Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Laboratory in 2016. Dr. Philip is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, Neural Control of Movement Society, American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine, American Society for Peripheral Nerve, and American Society for Neurorehabilitation.
Philip BA, Valyear KF, Cirstea CM, Baune NA, Kaufman C, Frey SH. (2022) Changes in primary somatosensory cortex following allogeneic hand transplantation or autogenic hand replantation. Frontiers in Neuroimaging. doi:10.3389/fnimg.2022.919694
Philip, B. A., Thompson, M. R., Baune, N. A., Hyde, M., & Mackinnon, S. E. (2021). Failure to Compensate: Nerve Injury Patients Use Their Injured Dominant Hand, Even When Their Non-Dominant is More Dexterous. Archives of physical medicine and rehabilitation. PMID: 34728192 DOI: 10.1016/j.apmr.2021.10.010
Philip, B. A., McAvoy, M. P., & Frey, S. H. (2021). Interhemispheric Parietal-Frontal Connectivity Predicts the Ability to Acquire a Nondominant Hand Skill. Brain Connectivity 11(4). https://doi.org/10.1089/brain.2020.0916
Zink PJ, Philip BA. (2020) Cortical plasticity in rehabilitation for upper extremity peripheral nerve injury. American Journal of Occupational Therapy 74(3).
Philip BA, Kaskutas V, Mackinnon SE. (2020) Impact of handedness on disability after unilateral upper extremity peripheral nerve disorder. HAND (NY). 15(3):3247-344.
Valyear KF, Philip BA (co-first authors), Cirstea CM, Chen P-W, Baune N, Marchal N, Frey SH. (2019) Interhemispheric transfer of post-amputation cortical plasticity within the human somatosensory cortex. NeuroImage, 116291.
Valyear K, Mattos D, Philip BA, Kaufman C, Frey SH. (2017) Grasping with a new hand: Improved performance and normalized grasp-selective brain responses despite persistent functional changes in primary motor cortex and low-level sensory and motor impairments. NeuroImage. PMID 28964930.
Philip BA, Frey SH. (2016) Increased functional connectivity between cortical hand areas and praxis network associated with training-related improvements in non-dominant hand precision drawing. Neuropsychologia 87: 157-168. PMID 27212059
Philip BA, Buckon C, Sienko S, Aoina M, Ross S, Frey SH. (2015) Maturation and experience in action representation: bilateral deficits in unilateral congenital amelia. Neuropsychologia 75: 420-430.
Randerath J, Valyear K, Philip BA, Frey SH. (2017) Parietofrontal cortex contributes to increased efficiency of planning-based action selection. Neuropsychologia 105: 135-143.
Philip BA, Frey SH (2014) Compensatory changes accompanying chronic forced use of the non-dominant hand by unilateral amputees. Journal of Neuroscience. 34(10): 3622-3631. PMID 24599461
Philip BA, Rao NG, Donoghue JP (2013). Simultaneous decoding of continuous hand movements from primary motor and posterior parietal cortex. Experimental Brain Research. 225(3): 361-75. PMID 23274645
Philip BA, Frey SH (2012) Stimulus-response correspondence across peripersonal space is unaffected by chronic unilateral limb loss. Experimental Brain Research. 224(3): 373-384. PMID 23138521
Philip BA, Frey SH (2011) Preserved grip selection planning in chronic unilateral upper extremity amputees. Experimental Brain Research. 214: 437-452. PMID 21863261
Philip BA, Wu Y, Donoghue JP, Sanes JN (2008) Performance differences in visually- and internally-guided continuous manual tracking movements. Experimental Brain Research. 190: 475-491. PMID 18648785
Gokin AP, Philip BA, Strichartz GR (2001) Preferential block of small myelinated sensory and motor fibers by lidocaine: in vivo electrophysiology in the rat sciatic nerve. Anesthesiology. 95(6): 1441-1454. PMID 11748404
2018: Preregistration Challenge Prize, Center for Open Science
2014: Best Resident/Fellow Clinical Science Poster, Finalist. Annual meeting of the American Society for Neurorehabilitation
2014: Midwest Regional Finalist, FameLab science communication competition
2013: Best Resident/Fellow Clinical Science Poster, Winner. Annual meeting of the American Society for Neurorehabilitation.
Philip, Benjamin, PhD
Assistant Professor of Occupational Therapy, Neurology and Surgery (Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery)
Phone: (314) 286-1634
Fax: (314) 286-1601
bphilip@wustl.edu
Neuroscience and Rehabilitation Laboratory
Ranked as the Number Three OT Program in the Nation
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Current, future and accepted applicants are encouraged to visit us in person or virtually. We also welcome people who are exploring career options and considering occupational therapy. Faculty member Dr. Kathy Kniepmann, opens our virtual visit sessions with an informal presentation and discussion, followed by a chat with a current student. In person visit sessions are by request only; please contact Dr. Kniepmann to schedule.
Upcoming virtual visit sessions*:
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Questions?
Call Dr. Kniepmann at (314) 286-1610 or Mikayla Williams at (314) 286-1655.