Movement Control and Rehabilitation Lab

Pramisha passes her preliminary oral examination and earns PhD candidacy. This is a huge milestone in her doctoral journey. We congratulate Pramisha for this important milestone.

Joshua Cheng and Pramisha Thapa presented their work at the annual meeting of Society for Neuroscience 2025 held at San Diego, California. 

Joshua Cheng presented a poster titled "Can augmented visual or auditory feedback enhance motor performance without increasing cognitive load?". This is the research that Josh did as an undergraduate student in the lab. 

Pramisha presented her poster titled " Do younger and older adults employ distinct strategies for online motor control for during unexpected perturbations?" at the Early Career Poster Session at the conference. This work was also accepted for a nanosymposium talk.

DPT Students: Olivia Mathias, Hanna Larson, Billy Yang, Aidan Nguyen, Tenzin Palmo

The annual meeting of American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) was held in Chicago, IL. Dr. J presented a talk titled "Role of lateralized cognitive and motor deficits on functional independence post stroke".

Welcome, Anja!

Pramisha received the Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2025 Trainee Professional Development Award to present her work at SfN in San Diego later this year. Her abstract was accepted for a talk at a nanosymposium. Congratulations Pramisha!

Pramisha passes her preliminary written exam! This is the first of 2 exams that will advance her candidacy for the Ph.D. We congratulate Pramisha on this important milestone!

A chilly windy day did not stop hundreds of walkers, rollers, and cheerleaders from coming out for the Strides for Stroke event at Long Lake Regional Park in New Brighton MN. We ran into our friend Kirsten who heads the HealthPartners Stroke INSPIRE support groups. It was great to see many other familiar faces who support the work of the Minnesota Stroke Association and those who are living with the impact of a stroke. 

The first Midwest Movement Science Symposium was organized by Center for Clinical Movement Science, University of Minnesota on 05/09/2025. Our lab was represented by Pramisha who shared our recent work on "Role of Lateral Cognitive and Motor Deficits on Functional Independence Post Stroke".

Congratulations to Beth, Evan, Zaynab, Taylor and Lilly! They presented their poster titled Asymmetries In Motor Control And Their Impact On Functional Independence. This signified the group’s culmination of one year of research in the MCR lab. Good luck to the students as they begin their clinical rotations!

Pramisha presented a poster titled “Role of Lateralized Cognitive and Motor Deficits on Functional Independence Post Stroke” at the annual meeting of American Society of Neurorehabilitation 2025, held at Atlanta, Georgia (April 23- April 25). The poster comprised of the data collected in our lab over 2 years on chronic stroke patient’s upper limb function. During the conference, she got an opportunity to meet and interact with the luminaries in the field including Dr. Carolee Winstein (in the picture) and Dr. Catherine Lang and received valuable feedback from them and many others.

Pramisha has received grants from the Council of Graduate Students and the Center for Clinical Movement Science to attend the 2025 American Society of Neurorehabilitation Annual Meeting in Atlanta, Georgia in April. She will be presenting a poster on our current studies going on in the lab. Congrats!

Michele and Pramisha shared our stroke study with attendees alongside other organizations that support those living with brain injury and stroke. We are thankful to have made new and lasting connections with the stroke and brain injury community. 

Team members enjoying the fruits of their accomplishments. Looking forward to next semester!

The event had an attendance of approximately 22,000 this year! We had good discussions about our work and received feedback that we look forward to incorporating in our future projects. Good job Pramisha on doing an excellent job at presenting our work during the 4 hour poster session on Wednesday morning!

On September 17th, 2024 Pramisha shared her poster entitled "Does Cognitive Load Affect Movement Preparation and Joint Coordination Differently Based on Lesion Side?" She shared her findings on the impact of cognitive load on post-stroke movement in individuals with severe chronic stroke. 

We are pleased to announce our newest team of students joining the MCR lab summer 2024:

DPT students: Beth Albrecht, Evan Croy, Zaynab Kassam, Taylor Krone & Lillian Rapp

Undergraduate Students: Joshua Cheng and Jordan Nguyen

Read all about them on our People page!

On May 16th Pramisha presented her poster entitled "Do deficits in cognitive aspects of movement control differ based on side of brain damage?" 

Welcome Michele. Thank you to Lelti for her hard work and best wishes as she transitions to medical school. Her innovative spirit will be missed!

Tyler C, Katherine, Kitty, Abigail and Tyler S presented their work at the Division of Physical Therapy’s annual Poster Day. This signified the group’s culmination of one year of research in the MCR lab. Good luck to the students as they begin their clinical rotations in fall!

Pramisha presented a poster titled " Deficits in cognitive aspects of movement control differ based on the side of brain damage in chronic stroke survivors" at the ASNR conference.

This is through The Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) at the University of Minnesota and begins in June.

Pramisha receives a Rehab Science new student research assistant award that will provide her partial funding to complete her studies for the next 1.5 years.

On July 25, 2023, at The Humphrey School Conference Center, Dr. Jayasinghe showcased her research during The Neuroscience Summer Retreat. Her presentation revolved around "Neural mechanisms of upper limb movements." In her talk, she delved into the model for controlling upper limb movement and neural lateralization. Moreover, she offered insights into ongoing lab studies, particularly centered on examining the impact of cognitive load on lateralized motor control processes using data from control scenarios.

• Michaela Craigan, DPT Class of 2024
• Katherine Ellis, DPT Class of 2024
• Emma Herbeck, DPT Class of 2024
• Jake Van Wyk, DPT Class of 2024

Welcome Lelti!

The annual meeting of American Congress of Rehabilitation Medicine (ACRM) was held in Chicago, IL. Dr. J presented a talk titled "Role of lateralized cognitive and motor deficits on functional independence post stroke".

Welcome Sam!

Michaela, Katie, Jake, and Emma presented their work at the Division of Physical Therapy’s annual Poster Day. Their poster was titled “Effects of visual perturbations on online motor control”. This signified the group’s culmination of one year of research in the MCR lab. Good luck to the students as they begin their clinical rotations in fall!

Dr. Jayasinghe moderated a panel on ‘Neurorobotics: Robots for Neurorehabilitation Research’ at the Design of Medical Devices conference held at the Graduate Hotel on-campus. The session was organized by Dr. Juergen Konczak and there were 3 speakers from the School of Kinesiology who talked about current research to examine sensorimotor function and motor learning using robotics devices.

Dr. Jayasinghe was invited to speak at the weekly seminar organized by the Center for Neuroengineering at the University of Minnesota. She presented research on the role of sensory feedback and cognition on movement control. This is research that was conducted during her graduate studies and postdoc work, along with current work in the MCR lab.

Dr. Jayasinghe is awarded Collaborative Mentorship Funding from the Center for Smart Use of Technologies to Assess Real World Outcomes (C-STAR), which is one of six national resource centers part of the Medical Rehabilitation Research Resource Network (MR3) of the NIH. She will be mentored by established investigators at the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab to develop protocols for EMG analysis and eye tracking that will enable her to pursue large-scale funding opportunities for her research.

The annual meeting for the American Society for Neurorehabilitation (ASNR) was held in Charleston, South Carolina. Dr. Jayasinghe presented a poster comprising data collected on a deafferented patient at Penn State as well as data from age-matched controls collected in the MCR lab. This work is an ongoing collaboration with Drs. Robert Sainburg and Fabrice Sarlegna.

Pramisha Thapa joins as the first PhD student of the MCR lab. Pramisha obtained her bachelor’s degree in Physiotherapy from Sikkim Manipal University, India.

Dr. Jayasinghe was accepted as a mentee to the competitive Training in Grantsmanship for Rehabilitation Research (TIGRR) workshop held in the Isle of Palms, South Carolina. This 4-day intense workshop brings together early stage rehabilitation research investigators and established NIH-funded investigators to develop skills in grant writing.