The Schwartz Movement Analysis & Rehabilitation Laboratory researchers focus their work on four main activities:
- Age-related changes in balance recovery reactions to unexpected loss of balance and fall initiation during both standing and walking
- Developing balance recovery Index to identify fallers based on parameters of balance recovery reactions during standing and walking
- Exploring whether this recovery "reflex like responses" can be improved by physical treatment
- Explore what is the best regime to improve balance recovery responses to better understand the locomotor adaptation and motor learning processes
- Exploring brain areas that are associated with balance recovery
The lab is equipped with a 16-camera Vicon motion analysis system, 2 portable force platform (Kistler Instrumente AG Winterthur, Switzerland), smart step system, 8-channel wireless EMG equipment and Biopac System (Inc. Goleta, CA, USA) that measures Physiological measurements (electrodermal responses, ECG, heart rate and variability and respiratory rate). One of the platforms is installed on a moveable platform that is controlled by servo-motors designed to study the effects of mechanical perturbations on postural control (The BaMPer system).
