Progress in Motor Control: From Neuroscience to Patient Outcomes

Dr. Levin, physiotherapist (McGill University), obtained a M.Sc. in Clinical Sciences (University of Montreal 1985) and a Ph.D. in Physiology (McGill 1990). Dr. Levin was a researcher and professor in the School of Rehabilitation at U Montreal and since 2004, she has been at the School of Physical and Occupational Therapy (SPOT) at McGill University. She was Research Director of the Rehabilitation Institute of Montreal (1997-2001) and Physical Therapy Program Director at SPOT (2004-2008). She was Research Scholar of the Quebec Health Research Fund (1992-2004) and held a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Motor Recovery and Rehabilitation (2005-2019). She is currently a Distinguished James McGill Professor and a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. Dr. Levin is the President of the International Society of Motor Control and is a Past-President of the International Society for Virtual Rehabilitation (2015-2017). She is also a Board member of the International Neurological Physiotherapy Association of the World Physiotherapy Association and editor of the journal "Motor Control". She has over 180 peer-reviewed publications. Her research focuses on elucidating mechanisms underlying sensorimotor deficits and their recovery in patients with CNS lesions. Amongst her research methodologies are new technologies such as virtual reality and robotics.

Maurizio Petrarca is a physiotherapist and obtained an M.Sc. Rehabilitation Science at the University "Tor Vergata" (2007) in Rome and PhD in Science and Space Technology, with a specialization in Mechanical Measurements for Engineering, at the "Giuseppe Colombo" University Center - CISAS in Padua (2011). He founded and has been in charge of the Movement Analysis and Robotics Laboratory at the "Bambino Gesù" Children's Hospital – a research institute in Rome, from 2000 to the present day. He is the Past-president of the Neurological and Neuroscience subgroup of the Italian Scientific Society of physiotherapy (A.I.FI. www.aifi.net). He was the PI and collaborated on many research projects concerning assessment and technological tool development in rehabilitation. He developed an in-house computerized optoelectronic system for movement analysis in 1986. He patented a mechanical dynamic orthoses system for gait recovery in 1995 and a modular robotic exoskeleton in 2012. He ideated a 3DoF robotized platform for balance assessment and training in 2006. He realizes a Dynamic Oriented Rehabilitative Integrated System (DORIS), mixing a 6DoF Stewart platform with movement analysis virtual reality and exoskeletons, not yet patented in 2019. He is developing a bioinspired robotic orthosis for the knee and elbow in the present day. He is a clinician progressively introduced in the research setting interested in studying the function organization in different contexts and diseases. He published 79 peer-reviewed publications.

Daniele Piscitelli is affiliated with the University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy as a Researcher. He was a visiting scholar at Pennsylvania State University (USA) for one year (2015/4- 2016/5). From 2017 to 2022, he was a Post-Doc Fellow at McGill University, under the directorship of Dr. Mindy F. Levin. He is a researcher with a background in neuroscience, neurorehabilitation, and clinical research design. He has a strong interest in rehabilitation after stroke, neural motor control, and psychometric assessment of outcome measures. His research focuses on understanding the neurophysiological mechanisms of motor control and how this knowledge can be translated into clinical research and clinical practice to promote recovery after brain lesions. His research has continuously been funded by many competitive research fellowships such as the Italian Ministry of Education, University and Research, McGill Faculty of Medicine, "Fonds de recherche en santé du Québec", and Canadian Institute of Health Research. Dr. Piscitelli has published several original papers and theoretical works in peer-review journals about the underlying motor control mechanisms in post-stroke recovery, despite a relatively young research-active career. In 2021, Dr. Piscitelli was the recipient of the Early Career Investigator Award by the International Society of Motor Control.

Susanna Summa acquired Bachelor Degree in Bioengineering at Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma and Master Degree in Bioengineering at Università degli Studi di Genova curriculum in Neuroengineering. She was Ph.D candidate in Bioengineering in collaboration with NeuroEngineering and NeuroRobotics Lab (NeuroLab) under the supervision of Vittorio Sanguineti and Maura Casadio. She is a member of the Movement Analysis and Robotic laboratory (MARlab), at the Bambino Gesù Pediatric Hospital under the supervision of Maurizio Petrarca. Previously she was at the Research Unit of Neurophysiology & Neuroengineering of Human-Technology Interaction, at the Campus Bio-Medico University. Her main research areas are neural control of movements, motor learning in normal and pathologic conditions, neuromotor recovery through robotic technologies and natural interfaces in persons with neurological disorders. Currently, she is focusing her interests on movement analysis of pediatric patients and in the study of human-machine interaction as tools for the assessment of neuromotor diseases and for neuromotor recovery with robotic platforms.