The broad research area of the Neuromuscular Physiology Laboratory is human movement control with a focus on movement variability. Although variability is a robust characteristic of our movements, it increases with aging and certain neurological diseases. The exacerbation of movement variability has serious functional implications, and thus our research attempts to: 1) better understand the neural mechanisms of movement variability; 2) characterize the functional implications of exacerbated movement variability; 3) develop innovative rehabilitation tools to reduce deleterious movement variability.
Research Highlights:
- Determine the pathophysiology of impaired motor control in older adults and patients with spinocerebellar ataxia, essential tremor, and myotonic dystrophy type 1
- Understand how movement variability affect activities of daily living in older adults and patients with neurological disorders. We focus our efforts on driving and over ground walking.
- Develop technically innovative, engaging, and affordable intervention tools that can be used at home to reduce deleterious effects of movement variability.
- Published in Journal of Neurophysiology, Journal of Gerontology, and Journal of Applied Physiology in the past few years
- Lab is funded by the NIH and AHA