Category Archives: Motor impairment

Using DTI to understand muscle contracture in children with Cerebral Palsy

A new study by Prof Rob Herbert and his team is investigating muscle contracture in children with cerebral palsy. Contracture is a stiffening of muscles, even when the muscle is passive. It is not yet known whether contracture is a result of changes in the muscle, changes in the associated tendon, or a combination of both. Around 53 per cent […]

Read more

Remapping the body

A stroke patient struggles to open a door. An amputee is frustrated at the erratic movements of his new prosthetic limb. And a healthy young individual is disappointed with how her body looks in the mirror. These troubles can stem from disruptions to the brain’s maps of the body; a problem observed in a whole host of other conditions. We currently […]

Read more

Everything our body does requires muscles, a brain and nerves

NeuRA’s Motor Impairment Group investigates this system and why it fails. The Motor Impairment Program is a five-year (2014-2018), NHMRC-funded grant, the goal of which is to better understand the pathophysiology of motor impairment, to implement interventions and to drive enhanced clinical practice. Following are highlights of the 2015 year. NeuRA’s Motor Impairment Research Program conducted a randomised controlled trial […]

Read more

A paradigm shift in proprioception

Proprioception is the sense of our body’s own actions. It is how we know where our body is in space. Disruption to proprioception can occur in many clinical conditions, including dystonia, stroke and Parkinson’s disease. When people have problems with proprioception, they cannot make normal movements. Over the last decade, numerous new findings have led to a paradigm shift in […]

Read more

Self-experiments: measuring breathlessness in SCI patients

Self-experiments have long been a part of science and medicine. Over the years, self-experimenters have proven invaluable to the medical research community, and to the patients they are seeking to help. Prof Simon Gandevia is well known for putting himself ‘under the microscope’ and is perfecting a measurement technique he and his team developed to measure breathlessness in people with […]

Read more

Contracture: understanding mechanisms and testing treatments

As part of a new National Health and Medical Research Council Program Grant on motor impairment, Prof Rob Herbert aims to advance the transfer of new understanding of physiology and pathophysiology in motor impairment toward the clinical outcome of improved motor function. Motor impairment is a common consequence of a number of illnesses and injuries. One type of motor impairment […]

Read more