Mia Montelongo is an undergraduate researcher at the N’MORE Lab, majoring in Rehabilitation Sciences with a concentration in Physical Therapy at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). Her research interests include neuroplasticity, noninvasive brain stimulation, and upper-extremity motor recovery after stroke.

At N’MORE, Mia investigates how transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) influences grip-force control in individuals with chronic stroke and healthy adults. She also contributes to research using wearable accelerometry to quantify motor performance and rehabilitation treatment content.

Mia has received competitive undergraduate research support through UTEP's BUILDing SCHOLARS program (2025) and the COURI SURPASS program (2026). Through SURPASS, she is conducting research examining the effects of tACS on grip release and presented her work at UTEP's 2026 COURI Summer Symposium.

Most recently, Mia is first author of an abstract accepted for presentation at the 2027 APTA Combined Sections Meeting (CSM), titled "Sham-Controlled tACS Effects on Grip-Release Initiation in Chronic Stroke and Healthy Adults." She is a co-author on two additional accepted CSM abstracts examining exercise-induced changes in motor-cortical physiology and accelerometry-based measurement of rehabilitation content. She also co-authored research presented at the 2026 American Society of Neurorehabilitation (ASNR) Annual Meeting.

Mia plans to pursue a career integrating physical therapy, neurological rehabilitation, and research.