Neurophysiology of Human Movement

The Neurophysiology of Human Movement group uses non-invasive brain stimulation techniques to understand how the healthy nervous system controls human movements, and how it may adapt under different conditions such as training, fatigue, exercise and ageing.

Research in this laboratory uses sophisticated neurophysiological techniques to examine how the brain controls human movement throughout the life span. We specialise in the use of brain stimulation techniques to painlessly and non-invasively examine how the brain controls skeletal muscles under diverse conditions. The overall goal is to understand how the healthy nervous system adapts to different challenges, and how it may be manipulated to improve motor function in conditions involving brain injury or disease.

Our work over the last two decades has defined the factors that contribute to brain plasticity (e.g. exercise, genetics, training, disuse), developed new strategies to optimise brain stimulation protocols to enhance motor function in health and disease, and established new techniques to identify changes in motor networks with motor skill learning and recovery from injury. 
 

  • Lead researcher

    Associate Professor John Semmler obtained his PhD in neurophysiology at the University of Adelaide, completed postdoctoral research at the University of Colorado, and was a Senior Lecturer at Deakin University in Melbourne before returning to the University of Adelaide. He is a teaching and research academic with expertise that spans Neuroscience, Physiology and Exercise Science disciplines. He has been Guest Editor for several leading journals, and currently serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Applied Physiology and Experimental Brain Research. 

  • Research team
    • A/Prof John Semmler, Lead Researcher
    • Dr George Opie, NHMRC Early Career Research Fellow
    • Dr Ryoki Sasaki, Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    • Brodie Hand, ARC Grant Funded Researcher
    • Wei-Yeh (Merrick) Liao, PhD Candidate
    • Nishadi Gamage, Adelaide-Nottingham Joint, PhD Candidate

  • Partnerships
    • Dr Mitchell Goldsworthy, University of Adelaide
    • Dr Roman Kostecki, ARC Centre for Nanoscale BioPhotonics, University of Adelaide
    • Dr Mathew Piasecki, University of Nottingham, UK
    • Dr Nigel Rogasch, University of Adelaide
    • Dr Simran Sidhu, University of Adelaide
    • Professor Ulf Ziemann, University of Tuebingen, Germany

  • Related areas of research