Our work aims to improve rehabilitation approaches for pain and movement disorders that have an adverse impact on society. This work has three primary goals:
· Understanding the complex individual variation underpinning the pain experience
· Untangling the mechanisms and processes through which interventions prevent the development of or provide relief from chronic pain
· Explaining the behavioral consequences of pain across the spectrum from impairments in the movement system to perceived disability.
Investigation of these goals encompasses different methods used alone or in combination; including neurophysiological, physiological, genetic, pain-related cognition, physical performance, biomechanical, and clinical measures. Our work involves a variety of designs ranging from laboratory-based studies involving healthy volunteers undergoing induced pain paradigms, to patient populations participating in clinical trials, to outcome-based research using large datasets from patients completing rehabilitation programs.
Investigation of these goals encompasses many different methods used alone or in combination; including neurophysiological, physiological, genetic, pain-related cognition, physical performance, biomechanical, and clinical measures. Investigation of these goals involves a variety of designs ranging from laboratory based studies involving health volunteers undergoing induced pain paradigms, to patient populations participating in clinical trials, to outcome based research using large datasets from patients completing rehabilitation programs.