Neural control and biomechanics of movement studied in human models, in normal preparations, and in disease states.

In our laboratories, which are based in the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, we study disturbances of reflex mechanisms and of voluntary movement in patients with stroke and spinal cord injury. We seek to learn why people with brain damage develop the characteristic impairments of muscular weakness, spasticity (increased muscle tone), and motor incoordination.

These studies include analyses of changes in control signals arising from damaged brain areas using psychophysical and imaging methods, recordings of altered motor unit discharge patterns to explore origins of muscular weakness, and mechanical measurements of altered forces and torque patterns generated by muscles in the impaired limbs.