Section Member Research
The Neurology Section has many members who are conducting exciting work related to neurologic physical therapy. The listings below are organized by diagnosis. Each listing briefly describes the research of the member and in many cases provides you with a link to his/her laboratory or personal website where you can find more detailed information. If you would like your research/lab included, please contact Katy Rudolph, PT, PhD
- Balance & Falls
- Brain Injury
- Degenerative Diseases
- Spinal Cord Injury
- Stroke
- Vestibular Rehabilitation
- Other
Leslie Allison , PT, PhD, East Carolina University.
Research Focus: Postural control, fall prevention and balance retraining. Specifically, deficiencies in multi-sensory integration [MSI] in elderly fallers and persons with neurologic conditions; improved measurement and intervention methods for the identification and remediation of MSI deficits.
Vicki Stemmons Mercer , PT, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. Research Focus: Improving postural control, particularly lateral
stability, in older adults at risk for falls and individuals recovering
from stroke.
Karen McCulloch, PT, PhD, NCS, University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill. Research focus: Attention and dual-task performance related to balance
and falls following traumatic brain injury.
Gammon M. Earhart , PT, PhD, Washington University in St. Louis.
Research Focus: My laboratory studies the neural control of movement in individuals with Parkinson disease and other movement disorders. We use kinematic, electromyographic, and electroencephalographic analyses to study the adaptive control of locomotion and posture in response to novel interventions such as stepping on a rotating treadmill or dancing tango.
Stacy Fritz, PT, PhD, University of South Carolina.
Research focus is in rehabilitation following chronic neurological insult. Her primary area of focus is intensive physical therapy following chronic stroke and incomplete spinal cord injury.
Scott Stackhouse, PT, PhD, Arcadia University.
Research Focus: 1. Enhancing functional outcomes with neural stem cell and other regenerative therapies in animal models of spinal cord injury and cerebral palsy. 2. Investigation of the effects of training therapies on measures of activity and participation in adolescents with cerebral palsy.
Bill Andrews , PT, EdD, NCS, Elon University.
Research Focus: Examination of patients with stroke; muscle performance (i.e. strength) and gait measurement (i.e. gait speed and community ambulation), especially in patients with stroke.
Lara A. Boyd, PT, PhD, University of British Columbia
Research Focus: Leading the effort to understand what therapies positively alter patterns of brain activity after stroke. Her group uses a combination of functional magnetic resonance imaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation to map changes in brain activity. Her studies are among the first to comprehensively examine the patterns of brain activation as they relate to motor learning and parameters of practice after stroke. Please visit the Brain Behavior Laboratory website for more information
Michael D. Ellis , DPT, Northwestern University.
Research Focus: My current research efforts employ several innovative methods for quantifying multi-joint upper extremity movement control during both postural and movement tasks in individuals with stroke. I utilize the same quantitative methods to instrument direct impairment-targeted interventions in an effort to elucidate neural mechanisms underlying impaired movement and subsequent restoration of normal movement in individuals with stroke.
Catherine Lang, PT, PhD, Washington University School of Medicine.
Research Focus: Our laboratory studies mechanistic and clinical questions about how the central nervous system learns and controls skilled voluntary movements, how movement recovers after nervous system damage, and how the mechanics of the body interact with the nervous system to produce movement. Using, kinematic, kinetic, electromyographic, and clinical measures, we are currently investigating a number of questions about upper extremity movement control in people with hemiparesis post stroke. We are located adjacent to a rehabilitation hospital which permits us to study inpatients during their acute rehabilitation stay as well as people with more chronic movement deficits.
Darcy S. Reisman, PT, PhD, University of Delaware.
Research Focus: Understanding the mechanisms underlying the recovery of locomotion and coordination post-stroke in order to develop scientifically-based therapies that will advance the physical rehabilitation and recovery of locomotion after stroke.
Katherine (Katy) Rudolph, PT, PhD, University of Delaware.
Research Focus: lower extremity control of locomotion; joint instability ACL deficient individuals and those with knee OA; people with hemiparesis post-stroke; older adults at risk for falls; . She is also interested in developing innovative rehabilitation interventions with new technologies for gait re-training.
Gregory Thielman, PT, Ed.D, ATC, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia.
Structuring Practice to facilitate learning in stroke patients- Clinical and Kinematic Outcomes Research of various practice methods; Kinematic Movement Analysis of reaching post stroke/ Long Term follow-up of trained subjects.
Andrea Behrman , PT, Ph.D. Co-PI: Steven A Kautz, Ph.D. Project Coordinator: Jeff Fox. VA Rehabilitation Research and Development. Research focus: to assess and compare the effects of robotic-assisted versus manually-assisted locomotor training using body weight support and a readmill on the sub-tasks comprising the task of walking (propulsion, transition from stance to step, stepping, and equilibrium).