Motor Rehabilitation and Learning Lab
Understanding how the brain (re)learns real-world movements
Who We Are
The MRL Lab at ASU is an interdisciplinary lab functioning in partnership with several other institutions such as the University of Pittsburgh, New York University, Chapman University, and Oregon Health & Science University to conduct low-cost, high access human subjects research that can be applied to clinical rehabilitative and neurological practice. We study interactions between cognitive and motor systems within the human brain.
Dr. Sydney Schaefer is the Lab Director and Assistant Professor in the School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering at Arizona State University. She received her BS in Sports Medicine from Pepperdine University. She then completed a MS and PhD in Kinesiology from Penn State University. She then worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the Program in Physical Therapy at Washington University in St. Louis. She worked as a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Department of Kinesiology and Health Science (formerly HPER) at Utah State University prior to joining the Biomedical Engineering faculty at ASU in 2016.
Research
The mission of our lab is to conduct low-cost, high-access human subjects research that can be applied to clinical rehabilitative and neurologic practice. We study interactions between cognitive and motor systems within the human brain. Research within the laboratory focuses on how the human nervous system learns new motor skills and relearns existing ones in the context of neurodegeneration and neural damage. Our latest work focuses on identifying unique deficits in motor learning that may indicate future cognitive decline and dementia, based on their associations with current biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease. Other research in our laboratory aims to provide much-needed evidence to support and optimize the design of targeted rehabilitative training for older adults across a range of age-related physical disabilities by incorporating cognitive assessments into baseline evaluations.
Laboratory Goals
Under the direction of Dr. Sydney Schaefer, the goals of the Motor Rehabilitation and Learning Laboratory are:
To develop brief, objective assessments of daily functioning that do not rely on subjective reports or collateral input, to enable early and equitable detection of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
To identify motor learning deficits that may serve as early indicators of cognitive decline, through the integration of cognitive-motor assessments and biomarker associations.
To validate and refine performance-based tools that are simple, scalable, and feasible for clinical and remote use, supporting both diagnostic practices and clinical trials.
These goals support the overall mission of the laboratory, which is to develop equitable and accessible assessments of motor and cognitive function in order to improve early detection, monitoring, and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.