Translational Research Network in Motor Disorder Rehabilitation: Advancing understanding of variability in motor control and learning, to enhance clinical practice

The theoretical understanding of human motor control and learning has a strong impact on the diagnosis and treatment of motor disorders, and vice versa. Recent progress has been made in the understanding of motor control and learning, particularly with respect to understanding the functional role of neuro-behavioural variability that is inherent to sensorimotor control. However, this progress has not yet been transferred appropriately into clinical therapy approaches. The goal of TReND is thus, to create a translational research network in motor disorder rehabilitation. The network will be highly interdisciplinary with doctoral and senior researchers from fundamental research areas (movement science, neuroscience, computer science), clinical practitioners (physical and occupational therapy, rehabilitation science, etc.) and partners from related industries. The overall aim is, to systematically translate recent theoretical and methodological advances in motor control and learning research into clinical practice to enhance clinical diagnosis and motor rehabilitation. More specific, we will investigate the functional role of variability in the sensorimotor coordination dynamics on behavioural and neurophysiological level in motor and mental disorders such as Stroke, Parkinson’s or Alzheimer’s disease. This will be addressed in three research objectives: 1. To investigate how different disorders affect the sensorimotor systems’ capability to exploit functional variability for stable and adaptive motor control; 2. To investigate how novel therapy concepts can enhance the capacity to exploit functional variability and treat motor disorders across different patient populations; and 3. To develop novel approaches to translate the knowledge gain from our fundamental research into clinical practice.