Faculty Supervisors

Mark Beauchamp

My research primarily focuses on the social psychology of Group Dynamics in sport and exercise contexts. A major program of research centres on examining the role perceptions (e.g., role ambiguity and role conflict) of members of interdependent teams in relation to various cognitive, affective, and behavioural outcomes. Drawing from a social cognitive perspective, recent research has also begun to investigate the nature of collective clarity (the extent to which team members are clear about their conjoint responsibilities), in relation to both athlete functioning and indices of well-being. A second program of research focuses on the psychology of close relationships. When people form close relationships self-efficacy beliefs exist in dynamic interaction with the beliefs people hold about the capabilities of their significant others. The overall goal of this research program is to investigate how different forms of relational efficacy (e.g., other-efficacy, relation-inferred self-efficacy) emerge in sport settings and subsequently influence individual as well as dyadic outcomes. A third program of research centres on examining transformational and transactional leadership in exercise, health, and educational contexts. Students interested in pursuing graduate studies in any of the above three areas are encouraged to contact me mark.beauchamp@ubc.ca.

Shannon Bredin

The overall theme of my research program is to examine the transition from inexperienced to skilled states of motor behaviour and the subsequent changes that emerge as a result of such a transition. From a theoretical perspective, the objective is to investigate the processes and mechanisms that underlie the learning of complex motor tasks, with a specific interest on the effects of practice on the relationship between perception and action. From a practical orientation, my research focuses on examining the variables that impinge on the practice session, with an explicit interest in identifying those factors that enhance skill acquisition, and conversely, those factors that are detrimental to the long-term retention and transfer of motor tasks. These issues are examined from both the perspective of the learner, as well as from the perspective of the teacher/instructor/coach. The ultimate humanistic goal of this research is to develop instructional strategies and pedagogical paradigms for the enhancement of skill acquisition in a wide range of movement settings. In addition, this research focuses on designing training environments, which promote self-directed learning and life-long physical activity behaviour. Therefore, the aforementioned issues are investigated from a lifespan perspective, which includes such populations as infants and children, aging individuals, and persons with a chronic disease. This research has important application for school-based programs, recreation programs, clinical settings, as well as home-based environments.

Mark Carpenter

As the Canada Research Chair in Physical Activity and Health, my research aims are to better understand the mechanisms that contribute to balance deficits and falls, and directly test the effectiveness of therapeutic interventions designed to improve balance performance. The research program has two specific objectives. The first objective is to identify the neural, musculo-skeletal and psychological factors that contribute to balance deficits and falls associated with age, Parkinson’s disease, vestibular loss and spinal cord injury. The second aim is to identify optimal exercise, training and treatment strategies to improve age and disease-specific balance deficits and reduce the occurrence and impact of falls. The research program in the Neural Control of Posture and Movement Laboratory features a comprehensive approach to studying dynamic control of balance by combining various neuro-physiological and biomechanical techniques, including surface and intra-muscular electromyography, 3D full-body motion analysis and force measurement coupled with quantitative and qualitative assessment of perceived and physiological effects of fear and anxiety. Virtual reality will be used to manipulate balance-related anxiety and recreate the environmental conditions that lead to falls in everyday life. Virtual environments will be integrated with a unique moving balance platform capable of producing unexpected multi-directional balance disturbances. The research will contribute important information and techniques to clinicians, physiotherapists and health workers to help them develop new methods to screen individuals with balance deficits and new treatment strategies to reduce the risk and impact of falls

Romeo Chua

The theme of my research program is the perceptual and motor control of human movement. The objective is to investigate processes and mechanisms that underlie the organization and regulation of movement. This research program has focused on: (a) visual-motor control ­ the examination of the manner in which visual information can be utilized for movement control; (b) stimulus-response compatibility - the investigation of the impact of stimulus-response organization on human information processing and performance; (c) Down syndrome – the elaboration of a model of cerebral specialization and motor function in persons with Down syndrome that has, as its primary feature, the dissociation of the functional subsystems serving speech perception and the organization of complex movement; and (d) coordination dynamics - the examination of neuromuscular and biomechanical constraints that influence the dynamics of movement coordination.

Peter Crocker

In the Behavioural Sports Sciences Laboratory we investigate a variety of interrelated areas within the realms of sport, physical activity and health promotion. Research is focused in the following areas: stress, coping and emotion in adolescent sport; friendships and social support in sporting environments; motivation for sport and physical activity participation; adolescents’ perceived physical-self and health-related behaviours, social physique anxiety and coping, and determinants of physical activity in children. Our research has been funded by a number of agencies including SSHRC, Heart & Stroke, Special Olympics, and Hampton.

Ian Franks

My research is concerned with the control and acquisition of human motor skills. Two programmes of research are presently underway to address specific questions in the area of motor learning and control. First, the programme of research funded by NSERC is intended to investigate the processes responsible for the preparation, initiation and execution of voluntary actions. Second, the programme of research funded by SSHRC is intended to uncover the precise nature of the effects of instruction and demonstration on the acquisition of motor skills. More information is available at the Motor Learnig and Control Lab.

Wendy Frisby

It is well known that only a small proportion of the population participates in physical activity enough to derive health benefits. The overall goal of my research program in is to determine how those who have the least access to physical activity can become more involved as decision makers and participants. To achieve this goal, I work collaboratively with women on low income (including single mothers and the elderly) and a number of community partners to critically analyse how social and living conditions, along with existing policies and programs in community recreation, create barriers to participation. The aim is to uncover inclusive community organizing practices and policies that are sensitive to the diversity of lived experience and to analyse the multi-level benefits that result when action plans are implemented. My recent SSHRC funded project addressed how the self-defined health concerns of women on low income (e.g., social isolation, stress, and physical inactivity) were alleviated through community partnerships that promoted increased access to publicly funded recreation services.

Nicola Hodges

Much of my research involves examination of the mechanisms underlying various instructional strategies, both the content of the information and the timing of provision. We have been examining the nature of information extracted and used from demonstrations in children and adults for whole-body movement tasks and how various task goals and constraints influence attention and subsequent movement reproduction. In other research, I have used a coordination paradigm to examine the processes underlying skill acquisition and performance in new, experienced and elderly individuals, with the aim of determining how knowledge of these processes can be used to facilitate learning generally. This has involved the manipulation of various practice variables such as focus of attention, vision, performance feedback, instructions and demonstrations. A final, yet related component of my research program, concerns examination of the processes underlying the development and maintenance of expert levels of performance, with specific reference to deliberate practice theory and the nature of control processes underlying the expert advantage (e.g., distally-focused representations). Again, this research has implications for training and instruction.

Laura Hurd Clarke

The overall goal of my research program is to explore the relationship between the body and the self in later life. Specifically, I have used qualitative methods to examine older women’s body image and embodied experience in relation to significant others as well as the lived realities of declining health, changing functional abilities and loss of energy. This research explores the impact of ageism and socially constructed beauty ideals on individuals’ self-perceptions as well as their sense of identity, physical attractiveness and social currency. Similarly, I have conducted research into remarriage after age 60 in order to investigate the influence of significant others on individuals’ sense of well-being, sexuality and life satisfaction. More recently, I have conducted collaborative, interdisciplinary research focused on osteoporotic women engaged in a physical activity intervention program to explore their conceptualizations of health, quality of life and well-being. Finally, I have been researching the links between individuals’ experiences of infertility and their sense of embodied identity.

Tim Inglis

The long term goal of my basic research program is to better understand the fundamental role played by sensory information in the control of standing balance and movement in humans. To investigate this focus, I have developed two research laboratories in the School of Human Kinetics at the University of British Columbia. In the first laboratory, I use a special research technique, termed microneurography, to record the lower-limb somatosensory neural activity of conscious human subjects. As a part of my Medical Research Council of Canada Post-Doctoral Fellowship, I was trained in the technique of Microneurography in research laboratories located in Australia and Sweden. Currently, there are no other single unit microneurography laboratories in Canada, and approximately only 8-10 microneurography laboratories worldwide that use this technique to investigate sensorimotor research issues. Research in the Human Microneurography laboratory at UBC is currently funded by equipment and operational grants provided by NSERC, and in the past by three collaborative NIH (National Institute of Health, U.S.) funded grants with a laboratory in the United States (Dr. Paul Cordo, OHSU, Portland, Oregon). Other recent collaborative initiatives through the neurophysiology laboratory include work with Dr. Kelvin Jones ( University of Alberta) and Dr. Andrew Cresswell (Karolinska Institute, Sweden). Finally, research involving mulitunit sympathetic recordings using microneurography have also recently begun with Dr. William Sheel (Human Kinetics, UBC) in COPD patients concerning exercise intolerance, and in Spinal Cord patients with Dr. Stacy Elliot and Dr. Sheel (BC Neurotrauma).

In the second research laboratory, I use conventional biomechanical techniques to analyse how standing balance and locomotion can be affected by manipulating sensory inputs. In particular, I use another novel research technique, termed galvanic vestibular stimulation, to artificially alter the human vestibular system (inner ear balancing system). Work in this lab has been established through startup funding provided by UBC and NSERC, and through collaborative efforts with Boston University (Dr. Jim Collins: R21 NIH research grant), and with Dr. Bradford McFadyen at the University of Laval. Recent collaborative research using this technique have recently begun with Drs. Simone Bortolami and James Lackner at Brandeis University, and during slip onset during gait in young and elderly subjects at Virginia Tech with Dr. Thurmon Lockhart. These last two collaborative efforts have been a part of my research sabbatical (Jan. 2003-Dec 2003). Finally, I have been involved with Dr. Gunter Siegmund and Dr. David Sanderson (Human Kinetics, UBC) developing a slip/fall laboratory (WCB funded) and with Dr. Janice Eng at UBC in Rehab. Sciences studying balance control following stroke (funded by CIHR grant to Dr. Eng).

Karim Khan

I am a CIHR New Investigator and a research partner in an active musculoskeletal research network that extends across UBC, as well as nationally and internationally. My particular interest is in preventing fractures with appropriate intervention in at-risk populations (secondary prevention). Physical activity plays an important role in this research. At UBC I collaborate with researchers from Family Medicine, Health Care & Epidemiology, Rehabilitation Sciences, and Orthopaedics as well as Kinesiology at SFU. In addition, we have strong links to clinical collaborators on and off campus. I am fortunate to work with a research Team of extremely talented and diligent graduate students who have diverse scientific and clinical backgrounds. Graduate students hold funding from CIHR, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, NSERC, Vancouver Foundation. Our physical and personnel infrastructure has been funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation, a Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Infrastructure Teams Grant (Oxland, VCHRI) and a CIHR Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement (ICE) grant.

Tania Lam

My educational background is in physical therapy and I received my scientific training in the neurosciences. My research is allowing me to bring together these two disciplines towards understanding how the human nervous system controls movement and how this control is affected after neurological injury, such as stroke or spinal cord injury. A key concept is that sensory input from the periphery is essential to our ability to produce meaningful and appropriate movements. During walking, for example, sensory signals from the lower limbs are critical for ensuring coordination between the limbs and joints, mediating responses to expected and unexpected disturbances, and allowing us to interact meaningfully with our surroundings. Of special interest is how we can now use our knowledge of the sensory regulation of human walking to develop effective rehabilitation strategies following movement disorders due to neural injury. My overall goal is to integrate information from basic science research on the neural and sensory control of walking with research on the design, efficacy, and implementation of new rehabilitation strategies for the recovery of walking following injury. This research will be enhanced by links with the International Collaboration on Repair Discoveries (ICORD) and the School of Rehabilitation Sciences at UBC. Current projects include testing of a new treadmill training strategy for people with stroke or spinal cord injury and investigating how people with neurological gait disorders cope with changes in the walking environment.

Don Mckenzie

My research program is divided between respiratory exercise physiology in healthy, well-trained athletes under normoxic and hypoxic conditions and clinical research in patients with chronic diseases. Our lab continues to study the mechanisms responsible for the development of hypoxemia during exercise and with exposure to altitude. We also evaluate and attempt to influence functional outcomes in adult patients with cancer, following organ transplantation, and with lung and muscle diseases.

Richard Mosher

My primary focus is the coordination of the Coaching Science unit within our graduate program. In this program, 7-8 graduate students per year concern themselves with the application of the natural and social sciences to coaching. Philosophical, developmental and training issues are researched with populations varying from young, school-aged children to Olympic-level athletes.

(MHK applicants only)

Ted Rhodes

Experimental research in exercise physiology and sports medicine. Primary focus is on the bioenergetics of ultra endurance events, lactate and oxygen kinetics. Studies have centered on analysis and recovery components of ultra endurance events, energy provided to rowers and fuels for performance. I have also researched the effects of strength training on muscular strength and bone density in elderly women.

Jim Rupert

My principle research interests relate to the genetic bases of human performance and adaptation.  The three basic themes on which my work is currently, or soon to be, focused are: 1) the prevalence of genetic variants that contribute to altitude sickness in high-altitude native populations; 2) the performance enhancing capacities of the ACE inhibitor family of medications and 3) genomic approaches to profiling gene expression in developing and exercising muscle.  I am also interested in the physiology of human adaptation to altitude, and in the interaction between nurture (cultural and social factors) and nature (genetic and developmental factors) that leads to high levels of human physical performance.

Much of my research in cardiovascular genetics of high-altitude Andean populations was supported by The Heart and Stroke Foundations of Canada and B.C./Yukon and The Heart and Stroke Scientific Research Corporation of Canada.

David Sanderson

My research program is to explore how skeletal muscle might be controlled or in itself dictate how humans move in cyclical fashion. The pattern of locomotion, be it walking, running, cycling, or wheelchair propulsion, includes periods when the skeletal system is alternately loaded and unloaded. For example, during walking there are forces applied to the body during the stance phase. These forces are removed during the swing phase. A similar pattern can be seen in running, cycling, and in wheelchair propulsion through hand contact with the push-rim. These cyclical loading patterns suggest that there will be a common strategy, based in skeletal muscle, that responds to loading magnitude, loading rate, and duration of load application. It is my hypothesis that the mechanical characteristics of the skeletal muscle dictate the response to variations in load and load-rate. Thus, "optimal" refers to some solution to a motion problem and this optimum is determined by the mechanical characteristics of skeletal muscle.

William Sheel

One of the most impressive features of the cardiovascular response to exercise is the redistribution of cardiac output, where blood flow increases to exercising muscle and decreases to non-exercising muscle and organs. My current research focus examines how the work of breathing during exercise impacts this redistribution. I have examined the effects of fatiguing diaphragm work on leg blood flow using Doppler ultrasound techniques. In addition, I have utilized microneurography recordings to determine that the sympathetic system is activated during fatiguing expiratory muscle work. It is my hypothesis that sympatho-excitation occurs when the work of breathing is high and there is a preferential redistribution of blood flow from limb (vascoconstruction) to respiratory muscle. Our data support this postulate. These findings have implications for both basic and clinical science and may potentially explain exercise intolerance in some diseased populations. An interdisciplinary team of UBC researchers Is being assembled to further investigate these topics.

Robert Sparks

My research interests span the areas of mass communication, popular culture, and public health, with particular emphasis on the processes of social communication in advertising and the mass media, and theories and methods in audience research and reception analysis. In previous research, I have examined the information needs and priorities of sports journalists, the audience strategies of all-sports cable television, active lifestyle messages in consumer brand advertising, and youth awareness of tobacco marketing and sponsorship. Ongoing research I am conducting examines the impacts of the Web on Canadian news reporting, the communications practices of Canadian national sport organizations (Olympic sports), and the effects of peer cultures on youth interpretations of the mixed messages about smoking in their daily lives.

Jack Taunton

We have just completed six overuse running injury studies: 2002 running injuries; plantar fasciitis; iliotibial band syndrome; two studies on Sun Run training clinics; two Sun Run participant questionnaires and compliance with treatment of running injuries. We are now doing Achilles tendinopathy; preventative role of strength training for runners, a large study on treatment of frozen shoulder. We are completing a study on patello femoral pain, tibialis posterior tendinopathy, role of gait analysis in orthotic shoe prescription. The exercise and thel elderly project is complete and we are planning another on hip strength and bone density changes. We are just starting a study of exercise rehabilitation with congestive heart failure. We have recently completed a study on an unloader knee brace for osteoarthritis and plan for another study on osteoarthritis attitudes toward exercise. We have also embarked on two overtraining studies with female athletes, one on menstrual changes, the other on identification of overuse parameters.

Patricia Vertinsky

Broadly speaking I am a cultural historian and a historical sociologist though my research is very interdisciplinary and spans a variety of disciplines and methodological approaches. My research interests encompass the social and cultural history of the body, gender, race, aging and disability. My books and monographs include The Eternally Wounded Woman: Women, Doctors and Exercise in the Late 19 th Century (1994), Physical Activity, Aging and Stereotypes (1996), Sites of Sport: Space, Place and Experience (2003) and Memory, Monument and Modernism: Disciplining Bodies in the Gymnasium (2003). Currently I am examining the ideological influences upon the education of the body, looking in particular at a critique of William Sheldon’s somatotyping techniques in anthropometry and most recently at the influence of Rudolf Laban’s modern dance and educational gymnastics upon the education of the British body. I am also co-editing a book entitled Sport and the Body with Jennifer Hargreaves.

Darren Warburton

My expertise is in the areas of sport cardiology and clinical exercise rehabilitation. My primary objective is to enhance the current knowledge of the effects that physical activity, exercise and training have on myocardial function, athletic performance and health status. I am particularly interested in what limits physical performance with respect to cardiovascular function and how this knowledge can be used to improve the quality of life of patients with chronic disease or disability. I am also greatly interested in how physical activity and fitness influence health status across the lifespan. Three research questions highlight my primary research interests and goals including: 1) How does aerobic and musculoskeletal fitness affect health status across the lifespan? 2) How can we optimize the quality of life of patients with chronic disease or disability? 3) What are the optimal means of improving cardiovascular function in health and disease? I am also very interested in the elite athletic model. I have evaluated extensively the mechanisms by which endurance athletes achieve their superior levels of aerobic performance. I have worked on the development of cardiac output measurement techniques, which can accurately measure the high cardiac outputs of elite athletes during exercise conditions. I have also conducted research, which evaluated potential ergogenic aids to athletic performance. I have examined the upper limits of human performance during prolonged strenuous exercise and the potential health-related complications associated with this form of exercise. Based on these experiences, I am interested in further addressing the following questions: 1) How do we accurately measure cardiac output during exercise conditions? 2) How can we optimize the aerobic performance of elite athletes? 3) What are the effects of prolonged strenuous exercise on the health status of athletes and non-athletes?

Brian Wilson

My research interests lie in three broad areas. The first area is youth cultural studies, which includes work on youth and (deviant) subcultures (e.g., youth drug/dance cultures), youth and alternative media (e.g. Internet use), recreation-related initiatives for underserved youth (e.g., youth experiences in drop-in recreation programmes), youth audience interpretations of media messages (e.g., interpretations of race and gender images; interpretations of anti-smoking messages), and portrayals of youth in mass media (e.g., moral panics about youth violence). The second area includes research on mass media portrayals of race and gender (e.g., images of Black athletes in commercial advertising). The third research area is focused on social movements (e.g., fan involvement in sport-related movements to save/revive sport franchises; the political and economic factors that impact the success of these movements; youth movements). A broad goal of my research program is to highlight ways that leisure and sport are simultaneously resources for empowerment and creativity and instruments for constraint and oppression, and to devise strategies for achieving progressive social development in this context.

Heather McKay, PhD

Associate Professor

Faculty of Medicine, Departments of Orthopaedics and Family Practice, Division of Orthopedic Engineering Research.

Office: Vancouver Hospital, Research Pavilion, 828 West 10th Ave, Rm 588.

Phone: (604) 875-5346

Fax: (604) 875-4376

mckayh@interchange.ubc.ca

Web page

Dr. McKay is head of the UBC Bone Health Research group located at the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute (VGH). Her research targets the relationship between physical activity and bone health across the lifespan including children and older populations of women who are at high risk for osteoporosis, falls and fracture. Current projects include randomized prospective intervention trials that investigate the role of physical activity, other lifestyle factors (diet), genetics and biomechanics on the developing and aging skeleton. Research projects utilize state of the art modalities such as dual energy X-ray absorptiometry, peripheral QCT and magnetic resonance imaging to assess bone health and the bone response to exercise. Her research is currently funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.

In addition, Dr. McKay recently initiated Action Schools! BC - a multidisciplinary, multisectoral program of physical activity and healthy eating in elementary schools. This tri-ministerial (Ministry of Health, Ministry of Community, Women and Aboriginal Services, Ministry of Education) and 2010 LegaciesNow supported project is a broad-based provincial initiative that promotes a shift in elementary school culture towards increased physical activity. A central part of AS! BC is the evaluations of the role of physical activity on cardiovascular health, bone health, obesity, psychosocial health and academic performance. Dr. McKay's research group has direct and ongoing collaborations with Nutrition, Radiology, Engineering, Rehabilitation Medicine and Family Medicine at UBC, with the Osteoporosis Research Group at Women's Hospital, the School of Kinesiology at SFU, the GF Strong Rehabilitation Center and Pediatric Orthopaedics and Endocrinology at Children's Hospital.

Dr. Jim Potts, PhD

Faculty of Medicine, Department of Pediatrics (Cardiology), (604) 875-2954

jpotts@interchange.ubc.ca

Approximately 1 in 100 children are born with congenital heart disease (CHD). In British Columbia 500 children are diagnosed each year with CHD. At B.C.’s Children’s Hospital we see about 3,500 children in our clinics each year and perform approximately 250 surgeries to correct their lesion(s). As a clinical epidemiologist, I am responsible for assisting the pediatric cardiologists and cardiac surgeons with evaluating their clinical practice and adopting evidence-based standards of care; and for coordinating the clinical research that is done by our cardiologists and surgeons. We are particularly interested in evaluating clinical and surgical outcomes associated with our practice. Assessing cardiac and vascular function using non-invasive and invasive techniques, both at rest and during exercise, in children with CHD, cancer, diabetes, obesity, and number of other diseases is also of interest. As well, we are involved in studies with our basic science colleagues evaluating different strategies for myocardial and cerebral protection during cardiopulmonary bypass and identifying cellular mechanisms involved in the generation of arrhythmias. We are also concerned with the in-utero diagnosis of CHD, evaluating normal and abnormal cardiac physiology, and assessing clinical and surgical outcomes in the fetus using non-invasive techniques such as echocardiography and Doppler.

Dr. Darlene Reid, PhD

School of Rehabilitation Medicine, (604) 822-7402

wdreid@interchange.ubc.ca

Research focuses on the area of exertion-induced muscle injury and pulmonary rehabilitation. I have explored the benefits of a variety of interventions including whole body exercise, respiratory muscle training, intermittent positive pressure ventilation, and patient education. During these studies, I have gained expertise in a variety of outcome measures that encompass evaluating exercise tolerance, functional capacity, health related quality of life, and respiratory muscle testing. I have also worked examining the cellular basis of muscle injury by examining the microscopic and physiological features of the respiratory muscles from people and animal models. Current clinical interests include examining underlying mechanisms of exertion-induced injury and regenerative capacity of the diaphragm and limb muscles in people with chronic respiratory disease.

Dr. Bonnie Sawatzky

Faculty of Medicine, Dept of Orthopaedics, (604) 875-2329

bsawatzky@cw.bc.ca

I have two main themes in my research programme. One stems from my PhD thesis that looked at the 3-D analysis of spinal surgery for scoliosis. More recently the focus has been on understanding the morphology of dysplastic spine as seen in neurofibromatosis patients. My other theme which is funded by NSERC, studies the physiological and biomechanical effects of wheelchair set up on wheelchair propulsion in both adults and children. Factors that have been studied include, tire pressure and type, camber angle, and sport wheels (Spinergy). I am currently investigating the problem of overuse injuries in wheelchair users with a specific interest in the prevalence of shoulder pain and pathology (MRI) in those who began using wheelchairs as children versus adults. My expertise in wheelchair propulsion is my reason for my association with ICORD (Interdisciplinary Collaboration on Repair Discoveries). I am also a member of the Gait Lab's clinical interpretation team at Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children. My academic affiliations are with the School of Human Kinetics and the School of Rehabilitation Medicine

Dr. Gunter Siegmund, PhD

Adjunct Professor, School of Human Kinetics

gunters@maceng.com

Whiplash injury, unlike most transportation-related injuries, occurs more frequently now than in the past despite obvious improvements in the safety of modern vehicles. My research is aimed at understanding how whiplash injuries occur and combines work using human subjects, crash test dummies, cadaveric tissue and mathematical models. From this work, I hope to build an understanding of whiplash that incorporates both the passive response of the various neck tissues with the active response of the reflexively-evoked neck muscles. This understanding can then be used to design vehicles that minimize both whiplash and other transportation-related injuries.