Named Grant:

The ICRF – Redhill Foundation Project Grant

About the Investigator:

Dr. Bar-Shalita’s research focuses on understanding sensory processing, including pain, as a predisposing factor in developing various health conditions. She received her undergraduate degree and her PhD in Medical Sciences from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. After Postdoctoral training at the University of Southern California, she joined Tel Aviv University, where she is now a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, and heads the graduate program and the Sensory Integration Lab.

About the Research:

In Israel, approximately four thousand new breast cancer cases are diagnosed annually. While the prevalence of survivorship is increasing due to life-saving hormonal therapy, many women, if not most, will develop pain and cognitive impairment over the years as side effects from such treatment. These may compromise long-term
medication compliance, affect survival and disease recurrence, and interfere with breast cancer survivors’ quality of life and daily function, leading to medical and societal burdens. No treatment has been provided for preventing chronic pain and severe cognitive deterioration.

Dr. Bar-Shalita and her team bring together broad clinical experience in breast cancer, along with cognitive, pain, and sensory expertise, as well as experience in neurofeedback research. Given that cognition and pain are linked both behaviorally and in brain activity, Dr. Bar-Shalita’s research goal is to explore neurofeedback therapy, a non-invasive and non-pharmacological treatment, to prevent worsening clinical symptoms via training the brain. Neurofeedback therapy has been proven to reduce pain and improve cognition singly; however, using it as a preventive treatment to target both types of symptoms at once is a novel approach.