Current Research Projects

Dr. Caccese Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University

One of our members has moved on to become an Assistant Professor at The Ohio State University (OSU)! Dr. Jaclyn Caccese was recognized for her hard work and devotion to the research community. In January 2020, Dr. Caccese assumed her new position at OSU at the Department of Health and...

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Dr. Jeka gives seminars at Indian Institute of Science

Dr. Jeka visited Bangalore, India   Dr. Jeka recently traveled to Bangalore, India to give two talks at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) , which is considered the leading science university in India. He was invited as part of the Pratiksha Brain Computation and Data Science initiative,...

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CoBal Lab is on NPR!

Balancing in Virtual Reality: UD researchers search for answers in the Cave   CoBal Lab is on NPR! Click on the link bellow and check out the publication! https://www.delawarepublic.org/post/balancing-virtual-reality-ud-researchers-search-answers-cave    ...

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American Academy of Neurology 2019

Dr. Jaclyn Caccese and Felipe Yamaguchi went to the 2019 AAN Sports Concussion Conference in Indianapolis, IN. Jaclyn presented her poster titled “Age of first exposure to soccer heading and sensory reweighting for upright stance”. She saw no differences in sensory processing for...

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ISPGR World Congress 2019

Dr. Jaclyn Caccese and Dr. John Jeka flew to Edinburgh, Scotland. Jaclyn presented her poster titled “Dynamic reweighting of three modalities for sensor fusion after repetitive head impact” at the International Society of Posture and Gait Research (ISPGR World Congress 2019). Although...

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Cheers to Dr.J!!

Last Fall (2018), Dr. John Jeka was a Keynote Speaker inside the Smolenice Castle – Bratislava, Slovakia! Yes, he did his keynote titled: “Temporally coordinated mechanisms of balance control during walking” in a castle!  The 8th Posture Symposium was organized by the Center of...

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Congrats to our new Ph.D. Fernando!

On the last week of March 2019, Fernando Vanderlinde dos Santos has successfully defended his dissertation titled “The Effect of Repetitive Head impacts on Sensory Reweighting and Human Balance”.  The purpose of his experiment was to gain an understanding of how prolonged repetitive...

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Sensory Processing and Balance Control during Walking in CP

The goal of this project is to characterize neural control strategies underlying walking in children with cerebral palsy (CP) to inform the development of new therapeutic approaches. In general, rehabilitation interventions focus on improving functional performance by decreasing motor deficits associated with muscle spasticity and weakness in children with CP. Far less attention has been paid to sensory processing deficits. However, recent studies have suggested that a significant contributor to the motor function deficit in children with CP may be impairment in the neural processing of tactile discrimination and proprioception information. The mechanisms associated with such sensory deficits, and how they impact motor control in individuals with CP, are unknown. The primary triad of sensory modalities that are crucial for healthy postural control are the visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems. We have developed innovative techniques to manipulate these sensory modalities, allowing investigation of how they support stable and flexible control of upright equilibrium during standing and walking. The long-term view is that this approach will identify mechanisms toward developing more effective sensorimotor rehabilitation paradigms for children with CP. The expected outcomes of this study include: 1) a better understanding of the relationship between sensory processing and functional mobility in individuals with CP; and 2) an elucidation of the effect of galvanic vestibular stimulation on individuals with CP. These findings may support a multi-dimensional clinical approach to potentiate typically motor-centric strategies for improving mobility in children with CP.

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