Our Mission
The broad research interest of the lab is to better understand movement deficits and develop rehabilitation protocols that enhance functional independence.
Recent Publications
YoonJin Choi's most recent paper, "Suppression of Axial Tremor by Deep Brain Stimulation in Patients with Essential Tremor: Effects on Gait and Balance Measures" was published in the Journal of Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements on July 1st, 2022!
Current Research
The research area of the NPL 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.
The following are current studies within our lab:
Neuromuscular mechanisms responsible for deficient motor control and learning in healthy (older adults and children) and diseased humans (spinocerebellar ataxia; stroke; essential tremor; dystonia).
Functional consequences of impaired motor control with emphasis on driving and overground walking.
Development
of rehabilitation tools and protocols for enhancing motor control.
Control
properties of single and multiple motor units in human limb muscles.
Oscillations in force and muscle activity.
Neural adaptations
in response to acute (e.g. gain of visual feedback, fatigue) and long-term (training, aging) perturbations in human motor performance.
