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overview
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My lab researches the motor control and biomechanics of feeding system. My lab uses electromyography and fluoromicrometry to study feeding muscle function, high speed biplanar videofluoroscopy to study 3d tongue and jaw kinematics, and finite element modelling to study mandible mechanics. We study diverse taxa.
My lab is working on understanding how both the jaw and tongue are moved and controlled during oral behaviors such as drinking, chewing and swallowing.
Dr. Nicho Hatsopoulos and my lab use neural recording techniques to study the role of motor and sensory cortex in control of oral behaviors including chewing and swallowing. We are researching neural encoding of jaw and tongue movements, neuroplasticity associated with learning new oral skills, and, with Dr. Fritzie Arce-McShane, the role of different oral sensory pathways in control of jaw and tongue movement.
My lab and Dr. Zeray Alemseged are using finite-element models of primate jaws to study mandible design in humans, great apes, and fossil hominids.
Dr. Russell Reid in the Department of Surgery and my lab are working with Drs. Olga Panagiotopoulou in Australia and Felippe Prado in Brazil on bioengineering of human jaw function during distraction osteogenesis and fracture repair.
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