The Neuromotor Function Core (RC-2) provides support for research conducted in University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) OAIC studies. The RC-2 enhances Pepper Center goals by providing the expertise and investigator resources to. assess the biomechanical and neurological mechanisms of functional performance with particular emphasis on gait, reaching and balance in older people with physical disabilities due to stroke, hip fracture or other chronic diseases associated with aging and disability. RC-2 aims are to: 1. Provide reliable functional and neurological measures to enhance the rehabilitation science in OAIC-supported clinical research studies which investigate the mechanisms underlying the physical and neuromuscular limitations of older individuals with stroke, hip fracture and other chronic diseases. 2. Develop new methodology to investigate deficits in neuromotor control and brain function in older disabled individuals and, in collaboration with RC-1, facilitate the implementation of motor learning principles and new technologies into novel exercise rehabilitation interventions that can be tested in the laboratory and then, if efficacious, be translated into the community. 3. Conduct research examining central and peripheral neural mechanisms in focused rehabilitation studies that are already shown to be efficacious to better understand the mechanisms of exercise-mediated neural adaptations underlying motor recovery and inform the design of new interventions. 4. Provide consultation, mechanistic insight and training to Junior Faculty and OIAC investigators, other Pepper Centers and investigators studying rehabilitation of older people with physical limitations at other institutions in the selection and use of functional and neuromotor assessment tools and assist in the interpretation of the research findings. Conduct of laboratory-based and standardized measures of functional performance, cortical and peripheral neuromuscular adaptations in the RC-2 allows strict maintenance of blinding as critical mechanistic outcomes are determined, and eliminates duplication of expensive testing equipment. Collection of functional, biomechanical and non-invasive neurophysiologic data by RC-2, and subsequent integration with data collected in other Cores enables a comprehensive, multi-disciplinary examination of mechanistic factors associated with novel rehabilitation intervention in stroke and hip fracture. Internal to the Pepper Center, RC- 2 is the primary support core for a CDP on proximal and distal arm training in stroke, a P/ES on bilateral robot-assisted ankle training in stroke and secondary support on a CDP for comparing impairments with muscle abnormalities, a P/ES on treadmill training in older individuals with HIV and a P/ES on treadmill training in hip fracture. The RC-2 is supports and is supported by 9 externally funded grants.
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