Motor Behavior and Neurorehabilitation Laboratory

The research program encompasses three major themes. Each entails a different scope, set of research tools, paradigms, and outcomes, but all three share a common mission – to investigate the brain-behavior relationships that are essential for relearning of skilled movement behaviors by patients with neurologic disorders. The first research theme is basic experimental work that has its roots in experimental psychology and neurophysiology; it emphasizes analysis of the critical elements (information processing operations, neural networks) used in motor control and learning of motor skills. The information derived from these studies is used to characterize the movement disorders in selected patient populations (for example, patients with stroke, Parkinson’s Disease, or Alzheimer’s Disease). The second research theme uses small-scale clinical studies to develop and test innovative methods of assessment and intervention to enhance recovery of skilled movements in neurologic patient populations. A key objective of these experiments is to measure therapeutic outcomes using both traditional approaches from motor control and learning as well as newer methods for imaging and probing the human brain, including magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET), and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). Finally, the third theme entails the planning and implementation of large-scale, multi-site clinical trials to determine the efficacy of new approaches in neurorehabilitation. This last theme is new to the physical rehabilitation community, and our laboratory is playing a leading role in its development through our newly established clinical research network (PTClinResNet).