Human Physiology Faculty Research

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/1794/3527

Previously called the Department of Exercise and Movement Science, the Department of Human Physiology is a major contributor to the training of life-sciences undergraduate and graduate students at the University of Oregon who desire careers in academic research, medicine and allied health.

At the undergraduate level, future researchers/teachers, physicians, physical therapists and other health care providers receive comprehensive, multidisciplinary training in the physical, biological, and chemical sciences that prepares them well for entrance into most professional health care-related programs.

In addition to requiring completion of the core science courses, students are challenged to question critically, think logically, and communicate clearly. Human Physiology students also examine the health sciences from a perspective that explores the functional and structural mechanisms underlying human movement across the life span, ranging from simple motor skills to the more complex environment of whole-body exercise. In short, the ever-expanding role of "exercise as medicine" is a critical component of the curriculum, making the department home to a great many students who desire to integrate the study of human movement, physical activity, and even sports with excellent training in the pre-health sciences.

The mission of the graduate program is to develop researchers and health professionals who are creative thinkers and innovators capable of generating new knowledge in the physiological and anatomical sciences. To this end, the department has a number of outstanding, funded laboratories that use physiological and engineering methods to evaluate human subjects under a broad spectrum of experimental conditions. The Department's faculty members recognize that integration of basic and applied research is vital to a fundamental understanding of how powerful human movement and physical activity are in influencing disease treatment and prevention. Consequently, in the performance of their research, they routinely work closely with physicians and other clinical personnel.

For more information, visit the department's web site.

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Recent Submissions

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Overt and Covert Object Features Mediate Timing of Patterned Brain Activity during Motor Planning
    (Oxford University Press, 2020-10-30) Marneweck, Michelle; Grafton, Scott T.
    Humans are seamless in their ability to efficiently and reliably generate fingertip forces to gracefully interact with objects. Such interactions rarely end in awkward outcomes like spilling, crushing, or tilting given advanced motor planning. Here we combine multiband imaging with deconvolution- and Bayesian pattern component modeling of functional magnetic resonance imaging data and in-scanner kinematics, revealing compelling evidence that the human brain differentially represents preparatory information for skillful object interactions depending on the saliency of visual cues. Earlier patterned activity was particularly evident in ventral visual processing stream-, but also selectively in dorsal visual processing stream and cerebellum in conditions of heightened uncertainty when an object’s superficial shape was incompatible rather than compatible with a key underlying object feature.
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    Maternal Methadone Destabilizes Neonatal Breathing and Desensitizes Neonates to Opioid-Induced Respiratory Frequency Depression
    (Frontiers Media, 2021-02-21) Hocker, Austin D.; Morrison, Nina R.; Selby, Matthew L.; Huxtable, Adrianne G.
    Pregnant women and developing infants are understudied populations in the opioid crisis, despite the rise in opioid use during pregnancy. Maternal opioid use results in diverse negative outcomes for the fetus/newborn, including death; however, the effects of perinatal (maternal and neonatal) opioids on developing respiratory circuitry are not well understood. Given the profound depressive effects of opioids on central respiratory networks controlling breathing, we tested the hypothesis that perinatal opioid exposure impairs respiratory neural circuitry, creating breathing instability. Our data demonstrate maternal opioids increase apneas and destabilize neonatal breathing. Maternal opioids also blunted opioid-induced respiratory frequency depression acutely in neonates; a unique finding since adult respiratory circuity does not desensitize to opioids. This desensitization normalized rapidly between postnatal days 1 and 2 (P1 and P2), the same age quantal slowing emerged in respiratory rhythm. These data suggest significant reorganization of respiratory rhythm generating circuits at P1–2, the same time as the preBötzinger Complex (key site of respiratory rhythm generation) becomes the dominant respiratory rhythm generator. Thus, these studies provide critical insight relevant to the normal developmental trajectory of respiratory circuits and suggest changes to mutual coupling between respiratory oscillators, while also highlighting how maternal opioids alter these developing circuits. In conclusion, the results presented demonstrate neurorespiratory disruption by maternal opioids and blunted opioid-induced respiratory frequency depression with neonatal opioids, which will be important for understanding and treating the increasing population of neonates exposed to gestational opioids.
  • ItemOpen Access
    Tips for the right support
    (1999) Verscheure, Susan