Spinal cord injury (SCI) could result in paralysis of the trunk and lower limb muscles which can significantly impair trunk stability and sitting balance. However, very little is known about the complex neuromuscular coordination of the trunk muscles and the effects of SCI. Currently, chest straps and trunk braces are used to stabilize the trunk and correct sitting after SCI. In addition to these passive devices, functional electrical stimulation (FES) could be used to artificially contract trunk muscles and regulate sitting balance. In this talk, I will present: (1) what we know about trunk muscle coordination; (2) how SCI affects trunk muscle coordination during sitting; and (3) how we can use FES to improve sitting balance. Understanding trunk muscle impairment in combination with the use of FES can provide important implications for optimizing sitting balance rehabilitation.<\/p>\n
Matija Milosevic is an NSERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Tokyo in Japan. Prior to moving to Tokyo, Matija completed his PhD in biomedical engineering at the Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto and the Rehabilitation Engineering Laboratory, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute-UHN. His main research was related to postural control and neuromuscular modelling of sitting and standing balance, and use of functional electrical stimulation. Matija\u2019s current research is focused on exploring neurophysiology and neuroplasticity during motor control tasks as a way to enhance the function of individuals with neurological and physical impairments as well as to maximize the performance of athletes. Matija\u2019s research expertise includes biomechanics, biomedical instrumentation, neurophysiology, neuroprostheses, modeling, signal processing and rehabilitation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Abstract Spinal cord injury (SCI) could result in paralysis of the trunk and lower limb muscles which can significantly impair trunk stability and sitting balance. However, very little is known …","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"pgc_meta":"","_tribe_events_status":"","_tribe_events_status_reason":""},"tags":[],"tribe_events_cat":[20],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/1011"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/tribe_events"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/1011\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1012,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events\/1011\/revisions\/1012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"tribe_events_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/reltoronto.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tribe_events_cat?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}