Position Title
Professor
Founding Co-Director, Center for Neuroengineering & Medicine
- Department of Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation
- Department of Neurobiology, Physiology and Behavior
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 Neuro Engineering 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.
Graduate group affiliations: