Research Laboratories

Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory

Laura Frey Law, PT, Ph.D., Director

Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory Biodex System

Location

1-118 Medical Education Building

Personnel

  • Director: Laura Frey Law, PhD, PT
  • Research Assistant:
    • A. John Gentile
    • Jen Lee
  • Postdoctoral Scholar:
    • Ting Xia
  • Graduate Student:
    • Keith Avin, PhD Student
  • DPT Student Research Group:
    • Carrie DeSotel , DPT Student
    • Lindsay Gassmann , DPT Student
    • Sam Hansen, DPT Student
    • Jenny Kirstein, DPT Student
    • Byron Murphy, DPT Student
    • Laura Sawatzke, DPT Student

Research Interests

Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory
  • Effects of pain and fatigue on motor function
    • Focusing on orthopedic conditions
    • Experimental pain conditions
    • Muscle activation strategies
    • Reflex responses
    • Individual differences in pain perception
  • Dynamic strength testing
    • Torque-velocity-position interactions
    • Major joints: knee, elbow, shoulder, wrist, trunk, hip, ankle
    • To be used in conjunction with Santos to predict human strength capability
  • Mathematical muscle modeling
    • Paralyzed muscle force estimates
    • Digital Human-Arm Model in collaboration with the Virtual Soldier Research Project
    • Modeling muscle fatigue
  • Outcomes Research
    • Lateral epicondylitis
    • Knee osteoarthritis

Laboratory Resources

The Neuromuscular Biomechanics Laboratory is a newly renovated space (~600 sq ft) aimed at studying neuromuscular (e.g., muscle activation strategies, EMG, reflex responses) and biomechanical (e.g., motion and force production) aspects of human movement. Major equipment includes:

  • Biodex System # with Researcher's Toolkit
  • 16 channel Bagnoli-16 (Delsys, Inc.) surface EMG
  • Digitimer DS7A stimulator
  • 100 Hz digital camera (Basler A602f)
  • Infusion pump
  • pH meter
  • Somedic Pressure Pain Algometer
  • Labview, Matlab, and MaxTraq 2D software packages
  • Dell Precision Workstation, with dual SATA hard-drives (RAID configured)
  • National Instruments M-series DAQ
  • Dell Latitude 600 laptop
  • National Instruments E-series DAQcard for portable EMG

Funding Sources

  • International Society for Pain