PROTECTIVE STEPPING RESPONSES AND FALLS IN THE ELDERLY

应聘者目前是初级调查员和物理治疗师 在平衡和运动控制方面进行定量研究 与功能运动的评估和恢复有关 成年人。他近期的长期目标是：建立一个 致力于运动功能障碍研究的独立研究线路 损害老年人的直立活动能力；识别与年龄相关的 导致受损的功能性运动控制过程的变化 垂直移动性；开发、实施和测试全面的 直立性定量评估的交互系统模型 老年人的机动性；识别患者特定的和进程特定的 老年人直立活动康复训练的干预措施 并测试这些康复方法的效果。 这项研究的一般假设是保护性步进 应对措施是保持平衡的重要战略。 在人类两足动物中，这种反应由于年龄相关而恶化 一种或多种神经肌肉骨骼机制的改变。步进 年轻人和老年人的反应功能没有和 有跌倒史的人将通过检查肌肉激活来进行评估 模式、动力学响应(地面反作用力和合成关节 扭矩)，以及在有意和诱导踏步过程中的整体身体运动。 高级顾问和他的研究小组处于领先地位 研究基本的相互作用的神经和肌肉骨骼运动 控制过程及其在康复医学中的应用。 此方法以前并未专门应用于 老龄化人类面临的多因素运动控制问题 众生相。与感觉运动表现计划密切合作 芝加哥康复研究所、Buehler老龄中心 西北大学医学院(NUMS)和 老年医学(NUMS)将极大地提高申请者的 为推动理疗应用而进行的研究培训工作 老年人直立活动的问题。操作员的额外培训 以条件反射为基础的老年康复平衡方法 将在埃默里康复和培训中心获得 大学是使用生物反馈的领先机构 康复。

The candidate is a Junior investigator and physical therapist presently conducting quantitative studies of balance and movement control as they pertain to the evaluation and restoration of functional movement in adults. His immediate long-term objectives are: to establish an independent research line dedicated to the study of movement dysfunction which impairs upright mobility in older adults; to identify age-related changes in functional movement control processes which lead to impaired upright mobility; to develop, implement, and test a comprehensive interactive systems model for the quantitative assessment of upright mobility in the aged; to identify patient specific and process specific interventions for the rehabilitation training of upright mobility in the elderly; and to test the efficacy of these rehabilitation approaches. The general hypotheses of this research are that protective stepping responses represent an important strategy for the preservation of balance in human bipeds, and that such responses deteriorate due to age-related changes in one or more neuromusculoskeletal mechanisms. Stepping response function among young adults and older individuals without and with a history of falls will be evaluated by examining muscle activation patterns, kinetic responses (ground reaction forces and resultant joint torques), and total body motion during intentional and induced stepping. The senior advisor and his research group are at the leading edge of Investigating fundamental interactive neural and musculoskeletal movement control processes and their applications to rehabilitation medicine. This approach has not previously been specifically applied to the multifactorial movement control problems which confront aging human beings. Close collaborations with the Sensory Motor Performance Program of the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago, the Buehler Center on Aging of Northwestern University Medical School (NUMS), and the Division of Geriatric Medicine, (NUMS) will boost dramatically the applicant's research training efforts to advance physical therapy applications to problems of upright mobility in the aged. Additional training in operant conditioning based approaches to balance rehabilitation in the elderly will be acquired at the Rehabilitation and Training Center of Emory University which is a leading facility in the use of biofeedback rehabilitation.