Fundamental shoulder function and dysfunction

How do shoulders work?

x-ray image of humeral head
The foundation of all other work in DIESEL, this research area probes the complex mechanical nature of the human shoulder, attempting to resolve some of the multitude of unsolved phenomenon that are involved in functional shoulder activities.

This includes examining complicated relative bony movements, exploring muscular control of the proximal upper limb, ensuring high-quality experimental data collection, and other crucial aspects of how shoulders work.

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Completed and ongoing research

DIESEL trainees are currently focusing their research on:

  • kinematic changes of the pectoralis major following fatiguing protocol
  • neuromusculoskeletal control of the pectoralis muscle group

Completed studies in this research area include (*denotes trainee):

  • *Lulic-Kuryllo T., Negro F., Jiang N., and Dickerson C.R., 2021, Standard bipolar surface EMG estimations mischaracterize pectoralis major activity in commonly performed tasks, Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 102509.
  • *Barrett J.M., *Fewster K.M., *Cudlip A.C., Dickerson C.R., Callaghan J.P., 2020, The rate of tendon failure in a collagen fibre recruitment-based model, Journal of Mechanical Behaviour of Biomedical Materials, In press as of December 12, 2020.
  • *Whittaker R.L., *Vidt M.E., *Lockley R.M.E., Mourtzakis M., and Dickerson C.R., 2021, Upper extremity and torso body segment parameters are affected by BMI and sex, Journal of Biomechanics, in press as of January 5, 2021.
  • *Lulic-Kuryllo T., *Alenabi T., *McDonald A.C., Kim S.Y., and Dickerson C.R., 2020, Sub-regional activation of supraspinatus and infraspinatus muscles during activities of daily living is task dependent, Journal of Electromyography and Kinesiology, 54:102450.
  • *Patterson A., Dickerson C.R., and Ribiero D.C., 2020, The effect of shoulder mobilisation on scapular and shoulder muscle activity during resisted shoulder abduction: a cross-over study on asymptomatic individuals, Journal of Manipulative and Physiological Therapeutics, 43(8):832-44.

Visit our publications page for a complete list of published peer-reviewed articles.