Proprioception is the sense of the body’s own actions in space. Proprioception is disrupted in many clinical conditions such as dystonia, Parkinson’s disease and stroke. This disruption affects the ability of these individuals to produce “normal” movements. For years different paradigms have been used by researchers to examine proprioception. Dr. Lee […]
Ahead of the second annual Motor Impairment meeting, Simon Gandevia, Deputy Director of Neuroscience Research Australia, talks about Motor Impairment; what it is and what he and his colleagues at NeuRA are investigating as part of the NHMRC-funded program grant.
Ageing decreases exercise performance and is frequently accompanied by reductions in cognitive performance. Deterioration in the physiological capacity to stand, walk and exercise leads to falling over. This can signify a serious deterioration in sensorimotor control. In the elderly, falling leads to serious morbidity and mortality with major costs to society. […]
As a graduate student, I volunteered at my local community centre and the manager assigned me to run one of the weekly exercise classes offered to older people in the community. I found this experience highly rewarding and I was impressed by the enthusiasm of participants. The highlight of each […]
Awareness of our physical ability is critically important when we decide on what actions to take. Can I reach that far?, Can I walk on that path?, Can I step that high? This is particularly important for older people whose physical function declines with age and who are at increased […]
Siobhan Moylan, a science and media communicator at Neuroscience Research Australia, recently conducted this insightful interview with Professor Simon Gandevia. In the interview, Professor Gandevia talks at length about motor impairment, which is the focus of a recent NHMRC Program Grant entitled ‘Motor Impairment: basic and applied human neurophysiology’. […]
Treatments for tremor disorders have largely focused on the prescription of medications or, in more severe cases, brain surgery (for a review see Schneider & Deuschl 2015). In recent years, there have been some novel – and at times ‘sci-fi’ – approaches to reducing tremor amplitude. Such approaches include the […]
There have been many important ‘D’iscoveries in 2014 Here we highlight some messages from 2014 from the Motor Impairment team. They focus on some major diseases, disorders and disabilities. In the coming days we will post additional highlights from 2014 dealing with other aspects of Motor Impairment and motor performance. […]
Professor Herbert’s research examines the mechanisms of contracture in human muscles using novel biomechanical methods. He also conducts epidemiological studies to quantify the prevalence and incidence of contracture, predict people who are most likely to develop contracture, and we conduct clinical trials to investigate the effectiveness of interventions designed to […]
