# RR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application

> **NIH VA IK6** · RALPH H JOHNSON VA MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · —

## Abstract

Science has become multidisciplinary and integrative, often requiring research teams. I have spent my career
working with and mentoring clinicians, engineers and basic scientists to develop teams. Over the past five
years I have especially focused on creating infrastructure and collaborations to facilitate multidisciplinary team
research. This renewal application is to continue building an individual and institutional neurorehabilitation
research program grounded in collaborative, multidisciplinary research involving clinicians, engineers and
basic scientists. My ultimate individual research goal is to translate and individualize innovative rehabilitation
interventions, and this will be achieved through better understanding fundamental concepts of locomotion and
developing mechanism-based rehabilitation interventions and measurements:
Fundamental concepts of locomotion: Understanding the task mechanics and neural control of walking is
crucial. Early work included original studies of muscle function during walking using musculoskeletal model
based computer simulations, including the first paper determining the function of the individual plantarflexors
and an influential two-part review article. We also published several studies that use simulation and
musculoskeletal modeling to understand the coordination of hemiparetic walking in order to establish cause
and effect relationships between specific coordination deficits and resulting functional limitations in walking.
Mechanism-based rehabilitation: An underlying tenet of my rehabilitation research is the need for mechanism-
based intervention, i.e., understanding the exact limiting impairments and how different interventions or
parameters of an intervention can affect those impairments. We have studied the response to locomotor
training post-stroke to determine the different characteristics of responders and non-responders. I am also now
exploring the potential for neuromodulation to augment rehabilitation. An important recent publication
established that the usual tDCS dose could be safely doubled in stroke patients, while a second study
established a dose response for upper-extremity motor recovery studies. Additionally, I am participating in a
multisite clinical trial of vagus nerve stimulation for post-stroke rehabilitation.
Mechanism-based measurement: While my research has focused on understanding underlying mechanisms, I
have consistently sought to translate that work by developing measurements informed by those underlying
mechanisms. Notable examples include “paretic propulsion,” which measures the contribution to total
propulsion resulting from the paretic leg, and “locomotor complexity,” which quantifies the number of
independent coactivation synergies (or modules) present in the paretic leg. Recent collaborations have added
imaging biomarkers like corticospinal tract lesion load. My current VA Merit investigates the importance of
corticoreticular pathway integrity for adapting walking t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10045520
- **Project number:** 5IK6RX003075-02
- **Recipient organization:** RALPH H JOHNSON VA MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** STEVEN A. KAUTZ
- **Activity code:** IK6 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** VA
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** —
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-10-01 → 2026-09-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10045520

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10045520, RR&D Research Career Scientist Award Application (5IK6RX003075-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10045520. Licensed CC0.

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