Current Projects

The overall goal of the Motor Behavior and Neuroimaging Laboratory
is to develop novel, effective, and individualized treatments to
improve motor function and quality of life after stroke.

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Control and Learning
of Skilled Arm
​Movements in Health and
after Stroke

Using kinematics and EMG, several research projects aim to understand understand how individuals control  and learn skilled, three-dimensional arm movements in young adults, older adults, and invididuals who have had a stroke. Paradigms allow investigation of both movement execution and movement planning as well as the learning of movement sequences. 

Neural Control of
Movement in Older Adults
and After Stroke

Several projects in the lab investigate the relationship between brain function and brain structure to motor performance, motor planning,  and motor learning in young adults, older adults, and individuals post-stroke.  We are interested in how variations in brain function and structure relate to and predict motor behavior as well as how individuals change brain activation to meet the demands of a movement task and whether this activation changes with practice.

Optimizing Training Approaches
to Functional Arm Training
After Stroke

Ongoing work in the lab examines different approaches to functional arm training after stroke with the goal of optimizing rehabilitation.  Work includes investigation of adding motor planning demands to training as well as the effect of training completed during standing and walking.  Projects often include measures of brain function and brain structure to allow examination of the mechanisms that promote recovery of function.