Event Date
Lena Ting, Ph.D.
Professor, Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University
Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Division of Physical Therapy, Emory University
ABSTRACT
Proprioceptive sensory organs give us a sense of our limbs and bodies during movement. 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.
BIO
Dr. Lena Ting is a professor in the Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Tech, and Co-Director of Innovations for Neural Technology and Engineered Neural Therapies (INTENT). Her research focuses on neuromechanics of muscle coordination for locomotion and balance. Using a combination of musculoskeletal modeling and behavioral experiments in humans and animals, she studies interactions between neural sensorimotor systems and musculoskeletal biomechanics. The goal of this research is to reveal general principles of muscle coordination for walking, with implications for rehabilitation and robotics.
Additionally, Dr. Ting is interested in how humans and animals perform coordinated movements so elegantly, and she is developing conceptual frameworks in neuromechanics to quantify how human cognition and perception influence muscle coordination and biomechanics to produce skilled movements. Ultimately, she hopes to unravel how social, cultural and biological influences shape individual movements. Her research has implications for physical therapy and rehabilitation, as well as the development of prosthetics.
SPONSORS
This event is sponsored by: College of Biological Sciences, College of Engineering, NeuroEngineering & Medicine Initiative, Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior, Department of Biomedical Engineering.
Faculty host: Carolynn Patten, PhD, Professor, Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation