Media Releases

U of T launches research centre for motor control

October 22, 2012

TORONTO, ON – The Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to has estab­lished a new cen­tre for the mul­ti­dis­ci­pli­nary study of human move­ment that aims to bet­ter under­stand the com­plex com­mu­ni­ca­tion between brain and body in sit­u­a­tions as var­ied as pulling a pen across the page to run­ning at high speed around a track.

The Cen­tre for Motor Con­trol (CMC), host­ed by the Fac­ul­ty of Kine­si­ol­o­gy and Phys­i­cal Edu­ca­tion, will bring togeth­er researchers from across the uni­ver­si­ty – and ulti­mate­ly Ontario and beyond – in dis­ci­plines rang­ing from health sci­ences, bio­med­ical engi­neer­ing, healthy high per­for­mance, com­put­er sci­ences and robot­ics. As a hub for this crit­i­cal research net­work, the CMC aims to bet­ter inte­grate basic and applied research and to more effi­cient­ly trans­late that knowl­edge into meth­ods and tools that can be used for train­ing or treat­ment.

“By bring­ing peo­ple togeth­er around the com­mon theme of motor behav­iour, we plan to stream­line the inquiry process while cre­at­ing new ways of tack­ling our research ques­tions,” says Pro­fes­sor Tim Welsh, who will act as the CMC’s first coor­di­na­tor.

Cov­er­ing the entire spec­trum of human move­ment – from patient pop­u­la­tions to elite ath­letes – the CMC aims to become an inter­na­tion­al cen­tre of excel­lence for the study of and vol­un­tary human move­ment.

“The pos­si­ble out­comes are incred­i­bly excit­ing and far-reach­ing,” says Dean Ira Jacobs.  “The results of this research and the col­lab­o­ra­tions it fos­ters could trans­form approach­es and appli­ca­tions in areas as diverse as patient reha­bil­i­ta­tion, work­place design and ath­lete train­ing.”

Read more about the CMC’s mis­sion, vision and mem­ber­ship.

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For more infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Althea Black­burn-Evans
Com­mu­ni­ca­tions direc­tor
Tel: 416.978.1663
a.blackburn.evans@utoronto.ca

Tim Welsh
Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor and CMC coor­di­na­tor
Tel: 416.946.3303
t.welsh@utoronto.ca