Dr. Robert Sainburg is a professor of Kinesiology and Neurology at Penn State and director of the Center for Movement Science and Technology (C-MOST) in the Huck Institute of Life Sciences. He manages two laboratories, the Movement Neuroscience laboratory at Penn State in the Department of Kinesiology at University Park, and the Neurorehabilitation Research Laboratory at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, in the Department of Neurology.

His research program is fundamentally translational, focusing on understanding basic neural mechanisms that underlie control, coordination, adaptation and learning of voluntary movements in humans. A major theme of his research has been neural lateralization for motor control. His research in patient populations addresses the functional neuroanatomy underlying lateralized processes of motor control, and the deficits that occur due to neuronal damage to the associated structures.

Dr. Sainburg’s research has led to a model of neural lateralization that attributes different aspects of control to each hemisphere, such that each hemisphere contributes unique control mechanisms to both sides of the body. This bi-hemispheric model of motor control has been able to predict hemisphere-specific deficits in both arms of unilaterally lesioned stroke patients. Most importantly, this work has led to a mechanistic understanding of non-paretic arm (ipsilesional) motor deficits in stroke patients. His current research along with collaborator Carolee Winstein, PT, PhD, at USC is exploring occupational therapy and physical therapy based clinical intervention that uses virtual reality and real-world training to ameliorate these deficits and improve functional independence in stroke patients.