The work within the Motor Behavior Lab is both cross-disciplinary and inter-disciplinary and issues are approached from a lifespan perspective. The Lab has extensive collaborations with a number of national and international research laboratories and much of the research described on this page is collaborative in nature. The Lab receives or has received funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Education’s National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR).

Self Produced Locomotion Project: The overarching objective of this project is to determine whether the transition to independent mobility during the first year of life engenders a host of changes in psychological functioning that have previously been linked to the onset of hands-and-knees crawling using quasi-experimental methods. We have developed a powered-mobility-device (PMD) that allows infants to move themselves forward to ascertain whether the experiences associated with this type of locomotion can bring about changes in wariness of heights, the ability to use specific types of optical flow for postural control, the ability to search for hidden objects, and a shift toward less egocentric forms of spatial coding. This work involves collaboration with Dr. Joseph Campos (University of California, Berkeley), Dr. Marianne Barbu-Roth (University of Paris V), Dr. Ichiro Uchiyama (Doshisha University, Kyoto, Japan), Dr. David Witherington (University of New Mexico), Dr. Laure Lejeune (University of Caen), and Dr. Carl Frankel (University of California, Berkeley and Stanford).

Neonatal Stepping: We have made a remarkable discovery by showing that human neonates will make coordinated stepping movements in response to optical flow that is projected onto a surface above which the infant is suspended. Our continuing work is devoted to examining the specificity of this effect. Current questions include: 1) can stepping movements be induced by optical flow at later periods during the first year of life? 2) is stepping specific to the direction of optical flow? 3) is stepping specific to the velocity of optical flow? And 4) can step-like movements be induced in postures other than the upright posture. This work involves collaboration with Dr. Marianne Barbu-Roth (University of Paris V), Dr. Joelle Provasi (EPHE, Paris) and Dr. Joseph Campos (University of California, Berkeley).

Learning Prosthetic Control: The primary thrust of this work is to develop a scientific knowledge base that can ultimately be used by therapists to design effective training strategies for persons with amputations who must learn to use a prosthetic limb. At the same time, we hope to test some basic questions in motor learning about the nature of bilateral transfer of skill and the role of different practice conditions on the retention of skill. More recent work has focused on the control of grip force using voluntary opening and voluntary closing prosthetic prehensors. We have found that each prehensor has distinct advantages and disadvantages depending on the nature of the task to be performed. These findings might ultimately contribute to the design of a prosthetic limb that minimizes the lack of functionality inherent in many contemporary designs.

Augmented Feedback: Recent research has shown that schedules of augmented feedback that facilitate the rate of skill improvement during practice can actually degrade the remembering of those same skills. However, the mechanism that underlies this phenomenon is poorly understood. Our recent work has shown that the characteristics of feedback that is intrinsic to the task can interact with the schedule on which augmented feedback is provided to determine how skills are acquired and retained. These findings are consistent with the idea that performance will degrade rapidly in the absence of augmented feedback if learners have not processed feedback that is intrinsic to the task.

Visual Input Requirements for Safe Mobility in the Elderly: The purpose of this study is to examine age-related differences in visual sampling patterns and visual gaze patterns as young and older adults negotiate varied travel paths, obstacles, steps and stairs. It is anticipated that this work will provide insight into visually guided locomotion in healthy older adults, and provide the foundation for future work aimed at examining the visual strategies used during locomotion in elderly with low vision. This project has been funded in part by the University of California, San Francisco Academic Senate Individual Investigator Award. A NIH R21 application is currently pending.

Age- and Gender-related Differences in Neuromuscular Control During Selected Athletic Tasks: The intent of this area of research is to investigate the relationships between age, gender, flexibility and warm-up activity on the biomechanical and neuromuscular control strategies used during athletic maneuvers such as landing, jumping, and changing direction. Results from this work may be beneficial in the development of targeted intervention strategies to reduce sports injuries, as well as the design of age- and gender-appropriate training and rehabilitation programs. This work involves collaboration with Dr. Christina Allen, Assistant Professor of Clinical Orthopaedics, University of California, San Francisco.

Kinesiological Analysis of Elderly Drivers: The purpose of this exploratory study was to develop an understanding of the problems faced by elderly drivers through 1) assessment of sensory and physical function, 2) observation of in-vehicle performance on a road course, 3) observation of ingress/egress tasks, and 4) focus groups. This study also aimed to expand the literature on the effectiveness of GPS and video technology to assess in vehicle performance of elderly drivers. Problems faced by elderly drivers were observed through analysis of in vehicle performance and focus group discussions. Difficulties detected in this study will direct future research on the effect of specific interventions. These interventions could include medical interventions and/or motor vehicle modifications that are aimed at keeping older drivers safe on the road despite functional declines. This study was funded by Toyota Motor Corportation. This work involves collaboration with faculty at PATH and Departments of Vision Science and Public Health at University of California, Berkeley.