Faculty Spotlight: Professor Carolynn Patten, Ph.D., P.T., F.A.P.T.A.
By Gabriela Lee and Noah A Pflueger-Peters
Dr. Carolynn Patten’s translational neuroscience and neurorehabilitation research combines expertise in neurophysiology, neuroimaging, biomechanical, behavioral and clinical approaches to studying human performance pre- and post-injury. Her research focuses on understanding the neural basis of human movement as well as investigating human motor control and learning from a neuromechanics perspective. A neuroscientist and physical therapist, Patten specializes in the assessment and treatment of motor dysfunction associated with aging and adult neuropathologies such as stroke.
More than 13 million worldwide have a stroke each year, and survivors can experience wide-ranging disabilities including difficulties with mobility and speech, as well as how they think and feel. Although the treatment of acute stroke improved considerably, it is still poorly understood why some patients recover and others do not. Dr. Patten’s work contributes to a better understanding of how brain networks reorganize during recovery from a stroke-induced deficit, and includes the investigation and development of novel means to induce neuroplasticity and recovery.
Patten’s UC Davis Biomechanics, Rehabilitation, and Integrative Neuroscience (BRaIN) Lab—which has locations in both Davis and Sacramento—is buzzing with the activities and experiments of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and research scientists from diverse graduate groups. On a given day, volunteers could be coming in for measurements related to various clinical studies, or the lab could be using state-of-the-art equipment to measure motor function biomarkers, among other things.
The lab’s work bridges the disciplines of motor control, neuroscience, biomechanics, clinical medicine, rehabilitation and biomedical engineering and its scientists and students collaborate with neurologists, mechanical engineers and computer scientists to tackle the field’s great scientific and translational challenges.
Before joining UC Davis in 2018, Patten held academic faculty positions at Stanford University School of Medicine, Boston University, UC San Francisco and the University of Florida. She has been continuously funded for the past 20 years as a research career scientist by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), a distinction reserved to the top 2% scientists affiliated with the VA.
Patten is also a Fellow of the American Physical Therapy Association, awarded to physical therapists who have been recognized by the association for work that has resulted in lasting and significant advances in the science, education and practice of the profession of physical therapy.
Having first-hand knowledge of the opportunities afforded by spanning multiple disciplines, Patten joined forces with mechanical and aerospace engineering professor Sanjay Joshi and biomedical engineering professor Karen Moxon to co-lead the Center for Neuroengineering & Medicine as a Co-Director. The center builds on excellence in neurosciences at UC Davis and fosters collaboration between engineering, neuroscience, medicine and the humanities to develop technologies and improve translational research while incorporating ethical, legal, and regulatory frameworks unique to neuroengineering.