Event
Special Bioengineering Seminar: Cara E. Stepp
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
11:00 a.m.
Room 1105 Kim Engineering Building
Professor Benjamin Shapiro
benshap@umd.edu
Sensorimotor Neurorehabilitation through Human-Machine Interactions
Cara E. Stepp
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Departments of Computer Science & Engineering and
Rehabilitation Medicine
University of Washington
Loss of sensorimotor function due to neurological impairment or injury can impede mobility, communication, and the ability to perform the activities necessary for independent living. Engineering offers unique tools that can be applied to improve the quality of life of individuals with sensorimotor injury. This presentation will introduce the use of multimodal sensory feedback and virtual reality to improve sensorimotor rehabilitation outcomes and chronic assistive device experience for individuals with neurological impairment or amputation, and will highlight some current projects in this area: sensory substitution for users of prosthetic hands, modulation of neural coherence during fine motor control through kinesthetic motor imagery, and future work utilizing videogaming for swallowing rehabilitation.
