Mar Cortes

Mar Cortes, M.D. is a former Associate Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation and Human Performance at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She held adjunct roles as a Lecturer in the Intensive Course in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation at the Berenson-Allen Center for Noninvasive Brain Stimulation, Harvard Medical School. Her research focuses on neural plasticity mechanisms in motor recovery following neurological injuries like stroke and spinal cord injury, combining robotic training and non-invasive brain stimulation techniques. She has explored interventions such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and spinal associative stimulation to enhance rehabilitation outcomes.

Education highlights include a Research Fellowship in Clinical Neurophysiology at the Burke Neurological Institute, a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation residency at Bellvitge University Hospital (Spain), and an M.D. from the University of the Basque Country. Her work has been recognized with awards including the 2013 Young Investigator Award from the NYC Neuromodulation Conference and the 2012 Neurotrauma Travel Grant from the University of Western Australia.

Research interests emphasize clinical applications of neuromodulation and robotics, with studies demonstrating the efficacy of robotic-assisted gait training, the impact of virtual reality on pain management in spinal cord injury patients, and the role of tDCS in enhancing motor recovery. She is affiliated with the Friel Lab, contributing to projects on Motor Recovery and Pain & Sensory Recovery. Her recent work addresses post-acute COVID-19 syndrome's neurological and functional impacts, leveraging interdisciplinary methodologies to advance personalized rehabilitation strategies.