Members of the Lab
Here you can read some brief information about the members of the lab--from permanent faculty, long term support staff, undergraduate students, graduate students and post-doctoral fellows!
Dr. E Paul Zehr, Professor & Head of Laboratory
My research focus is how the human nervous system controls movement. I am really interested in better understanding how the spinal cord works to produce co-ordinated arm and leg movements during walking. I am also very interested in understanding ways to target changes in the function of the nervous system (neural plasticity) that can improve the rehabilitation of walking after neurotrauma (and particularly after stroke).
The methodologies applied in my research projects cross many boundaries and make use of the techniques of neurophysiology, biomechanics, motor behaviour, and exercise physiology.
There are three major themes that emerge from my research: 1) the neural control of rhythmic human movement; 2) coordination of the arms and legs during locomotion; and 3) neuromuscular plasticity and motor recovery after stroke. You can read more about my research here and on my homepage.Dr. Sandra Hundza, Assistant Professor & Principal Research Collaborator
Physiotherapist (orthopaedics and neurology)
Research interests- motor control of human movement in development
and skill acquisition and in response to injury and disease
Holly Murray, Research Coordinator
Holly is a research coordinator in the Rehabilitation Neuroscience Lab, Behavioural Medicine Lab, and for the second year human physiology labs in the School of Exercise Science, Physical and Health Education.
In the Rehabilitation Neuroscience Lab Holly takes care of the administrative duties and helps with the ongoing research projects.
Pam Loadman
Pam is a physiotherapist who specializes in neurology. She completed her MSc in the Rehabilitation Neuroscience Laboratory under Dr. E.P. Zehr in 2006. Since that time, she has continued to work part time in the lab as a physiotherapist collecting clinical data and outcome measures in stroke and spinal cord injured subjects who participate in lab research. As well, Pam continues to do research with Dr. Zehr studying locomotor control in the stroke and spinal cord injured populations. Outside of the lab, Pam has a clinical practice in an outpatient neurological rehabilitation unit at the Victoria General Hospital. She enjoys teaching and is passionate about evidence based physiotherapy practice.
Katie Dragert
Katie is a research assistant in the Rehabilitation Neuroscience Laboratory, and is involved with various ongoing motor control projects. She began graduate studies at UVic under the supervision of Dr. Zehr in 2005, and fast-tracked to the PhD program in 2009. Her research focus is on reflex plasticity associated with movement and exercise training.
Her current work is in the area of lower leg spinal reflex modulation associated with targeted resistance training at the ankle. She has studied healthy participants, and is currently exploring the effects of this
training in a post-stroke clinical group.
When not in the lab, Katie is a member of an outrigger paddling club and competes in long distance races throughout the year. She enjoys cycling and outdoor pursuits in the comfortable Victoria climate. She is also an aspiring apiarist, and has two honeybee hives in her backyard.
Trevor Barss
Trevor Barss began his PhD training in the Rehabilitation Neuroscience Laboratory in January 2011 under the supervision of Dr. Paul Zehr. Trevor completed his B.Sc in Kinesiology and his M.Sc in Exercise Physiology at the University of Saskatchewan. His current research interests include neuromuscular adaptations in the upper body after resistance training. These adaptations in the nervous system will be explored in both a healthy and post-stroke clinical group in order to understand and explore unique post-stroke rehabilitation strategies.
Outside of the lab, Trevor enjoys exploring the many activities Vancouver Island has to offer including golfing, skiing, hiking and fishing. He is a huge sports fan having both played and refereed football and basketball at the University level respectively. Being from the prairies, Trevor is an avid fan of the Saskatchewan Roughriders.
Taryn Klarner
Taryn joined the Rehab Neuro Lab in January 2011 as a PhD student under the supervision of Drs. Paul Zehr and Sandra Hundza. Prior to starting her PhD, Taryn completed her BSc in Human Kinetics from the University of Guelph, Ontario and her MSc at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver.
It was her involvement in competitive figure skating that first sparked her interest in how the body moves and its ability to rehabilitate. Understanding the neural control mechanisms behind human movement serves as the foundation of her research aims.
During her PhD, Taryn is interested in expanding on the concepts that sensory systems within the body are capable of undergoing plastic changes. These changes could be important in aiding with movement and could be exploited to help those who have experienced neurological trauma. It is her long term goal to understand the basic mechanisms behind the control of human movement and use this as a basis for developing rehabilitative interventions.
Tim Mack
Tim is interested in how mechanisms of neural plasticity can be used to maintain or recover cognitive abilities as
we age and to promote recovery and functional independence following brain illness or injury. Of particular interest is how clinically proven interventions can be translated into accessible and cost effective community and outpatient based programs.
Through Tim's Ph.D. program he is currently researching the use of intra-individual variability (IIV) as a prodromal marker of central nervous system integrity in older adults. To measure IIV, he is using Near Infrared Spectroscopy, gait analysis and reaction time variability. Tim is interested in better understanding if these types of IIV markers are malleable to rehabilitation or lifestyle interventions and if interventions can change the trajectory of cognitive decline. He is also using health related quality of life (HRQoL) measures to compliment objective clinical markers of stroke recovery following an exercise rehabilitation intervention. Tim is interested in applying these same HRQoL measures in longitudinal studies of aging to better understand when someone becomes aware of cognitive decline, when this begins to impact their quality of life and how this interacts with their willingness to commit to lifestyle or rehabilitation type interventions.
Co-supervisors: Dr. Paul Zehr and Dr. Stuart MacDonald