ResearchGate profile

Honeycutt's Human Mobility Lab

Enhancing human mobility

There are two major research thrusts of the Human Mobility Lab: fall prevention and enhancing arm function. Our main objective is to work with clinicians to enhance rehabilitation strategies at the hospital, clinic, and home. Below you will find an overview of our research projects. Please contact Dr. Honeycutt if you are interested in learning more about our research. We embrace collaborations and look forward to hearing from you.

A balancing act -- a vaccine against falls?

Falls are one of the most common medical complications in older adults and neurological disease and injury patients. While many of us have fallen in our youth, falls in older adults are associated with significant disability, long and difficult rehabilitation, and death. Our primary objective is to understand what causes falls, identify those people most likely to fall, and develop interventions to prevent falling. Dr. Honeycutt’s long term goal is to develop an effective and time-efficient therapy program that individuals can go to the clinic or possibly their own gym to complete. The hope is that this treatment can act like a “vaccine” against falls.

We have a state-of-the-art system for the evaluation of balance, gait, and falls. An instrumented, split-belt treadmill with an integrated virtual reality environment allows detailed kinematic and kinetic measurements. In addition to this system, we have a fully equipped gait lab for evaluating gait, trips, and slips in a more natural environment. As part of a collaborative group of scientists at ASU including Thumon Lockhart and Jimmy Abbas, we strive to enhance mobility of all adults.

Startling insights

The Human Mobility Lab’s second major thrust is aimed at understanding motor planning during reaching and grasping movement. Movement is made up of two distinctive phases: planning and execution. The startle reflex is a new, non-invasive probe that allows us to evaluate the planning process in humans and patient populations. Further, this tool also allows us to evaluate the role of the brainstem in movement planning – something that until recently was only possible with complex electrophysiological recordings in animals. We use robots, virtual reality systems, and electromyography to evaluate motor planning both in unimpaired individuals and patient populations.

Subject recruitment

We are always looking for volunteers who are interested in participating in our experiments as human subjects. Here’s a list of our ongoing studies.

1. Research for understanding neural and muscular activities during a treadmill perturbation. 

   Falls are associated with significant disability, long and difficult rehabilitation, and death. Our primary objective is to understand the neural and muscular activities when someone is trying to regain balance after a treadmill perturbation.

   Your participation is voluntary. If you decide to participate in this study, you will be asked to walk/stand on a treadmill and we will record your movements in order to find out how you maintain your balance in different conditions. This study will be conducted in Human Mobility Laboratory (PEBE 158 on ASU tempe campus) and will take approximately 2-3 hours.

   In this study, we are actively recruiting older adults (55+), stroke survivors and young adults. Contact Claire Honeycutt for more information.

2. Research for understanding movement planning & learning.

   If you decide to participate, you will be asked to perform reaching tasks using a clinical robot to different types of sounds. The study will be conducted in PEBE building on ASU Tempe Campus and will take between 2-3 hours. Participation is voluntary. You will be compensated for your time.

   In this study, we are actively recruiting stroke survivors. Contact Claire Honeycutt for more information.