Neuroengineering & Medicine Seminar Series: Helen J. Huang, PhD - Electrocortical Correlates of Locomotor Tasks and Locomotor Adaptation

Helen Huang, PhD

Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department and Biomedical Engineering Program

University of Central Florida

ABSTRACT

Walking and locomotor tasks such as recumbent stepping and cycling likely share common neural substrates for control. Recent advances in electroencephalography (EEG) can provide insight on the extent of shared cortical dynamics among walking and locomotor tasks. To confidently interpret EEG data during walking, researchers need to address the on-going technical challenges of reducing motion artifacts in EEG. Dr. Huang will share her “due diligence” efforts to increase her confidence in the EEG findings from her studies. These efforts include analyzing only motion artifacts recorded in EEG and quantifying uncertainty in source estimation that may result from the process of digitizing EEG electrode locations. She will then present findings on the electrocortical correlates of active versus passive recumbent stepping and the electrocortical correlates of adapting to perturbations during recumbent stepping. Last, she will present recent results on the changes in walking patterns and stability in response to frequent small mechanical perturbations during walking.

BIO

Dr. Helen J. Huang is an Assistant Professor in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department and Biomedical Engineering Program at the University of Central Florida (UCF). She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She was also a postdoctoral fellow on the University of Colorado NIH T32 grant on aging and then returned to the University of Michigan as an assistant research scientist prior to starting at UCF in 2016.  She directs the UCF Biomechanics, Rehabilitation, and Interdisciplinary Neuroscience (BRaIN) Laboratory. Her team broadly studies neuromechanics of locomotor tasks and locomotor adaptation and has funding from UCF and the National Institute on Aging.

Faculty host: Carolynn Patten, PhD, Professor, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation