Northwestern Events Calendar

Jul
23
2018

Dr. Lena Ting: Revisiting muscle spindle function to understand impaired sensorimotor control

When: Monday, July 23, 2018
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM CT

Where: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab, Sky Lobby Auditorium A, 10th floor, 355 E. Erie, Chicago, IL 60611 map it

Audience: Faculty/Staff - Student - Public - Post Docs/Docs - Graduate Students

Cost: None

Contact: Tommi Raij, MD, PhD   (312) 238-4401

Group: Shirley Ryan AbilityLab Research Seminar Series

Category: Lectures & Meetings

Description:

Abstract

Proprioceptive sensory organs give us a sense of our limbs and bodies during movement. They are particularly important in sensorimotor responses to external perturbations to the body, such as a push or bump, whether maintaining the posture of a limb, or during standing balance. Based on our studies of electromyographic (EMG) responses during standing balance perturbations in healthy individuals and animals with large-fiber sensory neuropathy, we began re-considering classic ideas of sensory encoding in muscle spindle sensory organs, a class of proprioceptors in the muscles. In contrast to the classical explanation of muscle spindles as encoding muscle length and velocity, our work shows that muscle spindles encode muscle fiber force and rate change in force (dF/dt, or yank). This updated concept of muscle spindle function resolves many previously unexplained phenomena, such as history-dependent initial bursts, rate relaxation, fractional power scaling with stretch velocity, and other conditions where muscle spindles do not have a one-to-one relationship with muscle length and velocity. Using a multiscale model, we can predict differential change in muscle spindle firing occurring with chemotheraphy-induced neuropathy and the implications for balance and movement. Our ideas inspired a computational model of the pendulum test for spasticity, leading to novel mechanistic insights about mechanisms of spasticity in children with cerebral palsy. Finally, our work has implications for explaining known paradoxes in perception of limb position and impaired balance control in Parkinson’s disease.

Speaker info

Lena Ting received a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering at the University of California at Berkeley, an M.S.E. in Biomechanical Engineering and Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University. Her postdoctoral training was in neurophysiology at the University of Paris V and Oregon Health and Sciences University. Her research in neuromechanics focuses on the sensorimotor interactions between brain, body, and environment. Dr. Ting’s work focus is on complex, whole body movements such as walking and balance with strong clinical relevance, as well as skilled movements involved in dance and sport. This work has revealed interactions between electrical neuromotor signals from the body with neural mechanisms and functional biomechanical outputs during normal and impaired movement. Her work forms a foundation that researchers around the world are using to understand normal and impaired movement control in humans and animals as well as to develop better robotic devices that interact with people.

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