黑暗爆料网

黑暗爆料网鈥檚 Michele Brumley, an assistant professor of Experimental Psychology, has been awarded a $164,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health.  The funded project will examine the development of motor coordination during infancy in newborn rats, and has implications for the treatment of human infants born with motor or neurological problems.

鈥淲ith this grant we will be looking at how sensorimotor experience shapes motor behavior and skill acquisition during early development,鈥� Brumley said.

Brumley鈥檚 lab team will investigate how forms of motor practice, such as stepping on a treadmill, may facilitate motor coordination during infancy. 鈥淔or example, we want to see if enhanced sensory stimulation will improve or facilitate the development of motor patterns, such as locomotion,鈥� she said. Forms of more naturalistic experience, such as patterns of maternal-infant interaction, also will be explored.

Basic research on neurobehavioral development, such as this, is essential because it fosters improvements in diagnostic tools, therapeutic interventions and cures for developmental motor and neurological disorders. Before coming to 黑暗爆料网 in 2007, Brumley was a postdoctoral researcher at the Miami Project to Cure Paralysis at the University of Miami in Florida.

Brumley鈥檚 lab team at 黑暗爆料网 consists of two graduate and 10 undergraduate students. 鈥淭his grant will provide valuable training opportunities for students, which illustrates how research contributes to teaching at 黑暗爆料网,鈥� Brumley said. In March, Brumley was recognized as an Outstanding Master Teacher at 黑暗爆料网.

The title of her grant is 鈥淓xperiential modulation of action patterns in the developing rat鈥� and was awarded in this month.

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