Position Title
Professor
Founding Co-Director, Center for Neuroengineering & Medicine
- Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
- Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
- Center for Mind and Brain
We thank Dr. Patten for her distinguished tenure as the Co-Director of the Center for Neuroengineering and Medicine at UC Davis and wish her the best in her new position at the University of Washington in Seattle (starting September 2025)! Dr. Patten is one of the center's founding co-directors, and she co-led grass-roots efforts to establish the center (approximately 2018-2020), together with Dr. Sanjay Joshi and Dr. Karen Moxon.
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Dr. Patten is a neuroscientist and physical therapist who specializes in assessment and treatment of motor dysfunction associated with aging and adult neuropathologies, such as stroke. She directs the UC Davis Biomechanics, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Lab and co-leads the UC Davis Center for Neuroengineering and Medicine.
Dr. Patten’s research focuses on understanding the neural basis of human movement, investigating human motor control and learning from a perspective of neuromechanics. Using concurrent behavioral and neurophysiological methods, her laboratory has developed techniques sensitive to motor impairment. An emphasis of the lab’s current work is identification of biomarkers to predict motor recovery following stroke and the critical factors that contribute to rehabilitation efficacy. To achieve these goals, projects in the BRaIN lab investigate: neural mechanisms and biomechanical consequences of CNS pathologies causing motor dysfunction; novel means to induce neuroplasticity and motor recovery; and individual differences in both the natural history of motor recovery and response to rehabilitation interventions.
Dr. Patten was featured in a Faculty Spotlight article published in August 2021.
Graduate group affiliations: