Northwestern University
Bio: Matthew Tresch is Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Neuroscience at Northwestern University and a principal investigator at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. He received his B.A. in Psychology from Wesleyan University and his Ph.D. in Neuroscience from MIT in the laboratory of Emilio Bizzi. After his doctoral work, he was a postdoctoral fellow with Ole Kiehn at the University of Copenhagen before returning to MIT as a research scientist and then starting as faculty at Northwestern.
Abstract: In order to produce movements, muscles must act through joints. The translation from muscle force to limb movement is mediated by internal joint structures that permit movement in some directions but constrain it in others. Although muscle forces acting against constrained directions will not affect limb movements, such forces can cause excess stresses and strains in joint structures, leading to pain or injury. I will present recent results from our group demonstrating the importance of joint stresses and strains in the neural control of movement. These results can help guide future experiments investigating neural control strategies and approaches for neurorehabilitation.
