Influence of athletic footwear on lower limb biomechanics of pubertal girls. This project aims to determine whether athletic footwear with appropriate design features can help improve neuromuscular control and, in doing so, reduce the potentially deleterious forces on the knee and lower limb structures of pubertal girls. As girls reach puberty, they become less able to control the movement patterns of their lower limbs, particularly in high-demand tasks like running and jumping. Better-designed ....Influence of athletic footwear on lower limb biomechanics of pubertal girls. This project aims to determine whether athletic footwear with appropriate design features can help improve neuromuscular control and, in doing so, reduce the potentially deleterious forces on the knee and lower limb structures of pubertal girls. As girls reach puberty, they become less able to control the movement patterns of their lower limbs, particularly in high-demand tasks like running and jumping. Better-designed footwear for pubertal girls may improve movement patterns, decrease the likelihood of musculoskeletal injury and improve physical activity participation rates. Project outcomes may lead to the development of such footwear, and are also anticipated to expand our understanding of female developmental biomechanics.Read moreRead less
Optimising the spring in your step to enhance footwear design. This project aims to examine how the nervous system adjusts the mechanical function of our feet across a spectrum of speeds, from slow running through to maximal effort sprinting. The proposed research will explore how the nervous system controls the function of the foot to meet the ever-varying demands of locomotion in the real-world. Expected outcomes of this project are to determine if running shoes help or hinder the natural spri ....Optimising the spring in your step to enhance footwear design. This project aims to examine how the nervous system adjusts the mechanical function of our feet across a spectrum of speeds, from slow running through to maximal effort sprinting. The proposed research will explore how the nervous system controls the function of the foot to meet the ever-varying demands of locomotion in the real-world. Expected outcomes of this project are to determine if running shoes help or hinder the natural spring-like function of the foot. It will explain a conceptually novel design allowing shoes to support our feet, whilst harnessing the energetic benefits of the foot's spring-like function. This research has the potential to revolutionise athletic footwear design and has direct implications for enhanced performance in running athletes.Read moreRead less
Athletic footwear for reducing knee loads in girls and women. This project aims to develop a novel athletic shoe that can reduce harmful knee loads during sport in adolescent girls and young women. As girls reach puberty, they become less able to control the movement patterns of their knees and lower limbs - particularly in high-demand tasks like jumping. The project will develop a new ASICS shoe that will be ‘field-tested’ during sporting activity with high ACL injury risk (netball) to evaluate ....Athletic footwear for reducing knee loads in girls and women. This project aims to develop a novel athletic shoe that can reduce harmful knee loads during sport in adolescent girls and young women. As girls reach puberty, they become less able to control the movement patterns of their knees and lower limbs - particularly in high-demand tasks like jumping. The project will develop a new ASICS shoe that will be ‘field-tested’ during sporting activity with high ACL injury risk (netball) to evaluate its effect on tibial shock (in-field surrogate measure of knee load) and player comfort compared to a conventional shoe. Expected outcomes include reduced healthcare costs associated with the treatment of serious knee injury, including surgical reconstruction and early-onset knee osteoarthritis.Read moreRead less
Functional Assessment of Head-eye Coordination during Driving. 238 people per 100,000 population were hospitalized and 9 people per 100,000 died as a result of road-transport related injury in Australia in 2002. We will address this issue by assessing the head eye coordination strategies for young drivers, for proficient drivers and for aged drivers to determine those behaviors and strategies that are associated with various levels of performance. This insight could be affectively communicated t ....Functional Assessment of Head-eye Coordination during Driving. 238 people per 100,000 population were hospitalized and 9 people per 100,000 died as a result of road-transport related injury in Australia in 2002. We will address this issue by assessing the head eye coordination strategies for young drivers, for proficient drivers and for aged drivers to determine those behaviors and strategies that are associated with various levels of performance. This insight could be affectively communicated to others and would provide the basis for educational material and methods that would improve operator skill, safety, and performance. These individual improvements would provide overall benefits such as improved transport efficiency, reduced accident rates, saved lives and a reduction in related social costs.Read moreRead less
The structure and function of the human spinal connectome. This project will use complex network analysis to map the interactions between the brain and body, to understand how the central nervous system controls our movements. The project will provide fundamental insights into mechanisms that coordinate activity in the human motor system, and how the breakdown of coordination may lead to movement disorders. By integrating advanced computational analyses with state-of-the-art recording techniques ....The structure and function of the human spinal connectome. This project will use complex network analysis to map the interactions between the brain and body, to understand how the central nervous system controls our movements. The project will provide fundamental insights into mechanisms that coordinate activity in the human motor system, and how the breakdown of coordination may lead to movement disorders. By integrating advanced computational analyses with state-of-the-art recording techniques, the project will generate new knowledge of the neural basis of human motor coordination. Expected outcomes may support future applications to restore motor function through brain stimulation, prosthetics and robotics design.Read moreRead less
The implications of resistance training for the control of movement. Resistance training (or weight lifting) is an essential element of comprehensive rehabilitation programs in a wide range of clinical settings. However, because we know little about how the organization of the nervous system is affected by training with high loads, the consequences of resistance training for our ability to control functional movements are unclear. The ultimate goal of this research is to generate basic knowledge ....The implications of resistance training for the control of movement. Resistance training (or weight lifting) is an essential element of comprehensive rehabilitation programs in a wide range of clinical settings. However, because we know little about how the organization of the nervous system is affected by training with high loads, the consequences of resistance training for our ability to control functional movements are unclear. The ultimate goal of this research is to generate basic knowledge about the impact of resistance training on nervous system function. The research will lead to the design of injury prevention and rehabilitation programs that are maximally effective, and provide a genuine benefit to the community.Read moreRead less
Developmental trajectory of tongue control for speech with real-time MRI. This project aims to evaluate the developmental trajectory of tongue control during speech, relating dynamic 3D vocal tract modelling to the acoustic signal. By optimising real-time MRI technology to capture and model articulatory movements, the project expects to accelerate understanding of how tongue control for speech is developed, mastered, and perturbed by factors such as rapid growth and foreign accent. Expected outc ....Developmental trajectory of tongue control for speech with real-time MRI. This project aims to evaluate the developmental trajectory of tongue control during speech, relating dynamic 3D vocal tract modelling to the acoustic signal. By optimising real-time MRI technology to capture and model articulatory movements, the project expects to accelerate understanding of how tongue control for speech is developed, mastered, and perturbed by factors such as rapid growth and foreign accent. Expected outcome is a new understanding of how different speakers' vocal tracts change and how speech is reshaped, informed by real physiological data. Significant benefits will be realised through refined methods and theory development for diverse fields e.g. linguistics, speech science, and automatic speech recognition/synthesis. Read moreRead less
A new model of human speech production through computational modeling and human functional brain imaging. It is still largely a mystery how we convert our thoughts into fluent intelligible speech. This project will bring together experts in speech pathology, neuroscience, and computer modeling to create a new biologically-plausible model of speech production to advance understanding of speech development, ageing, and mechanisms of recovery after injury.