On Episode 36 of Concussion Talk Podcast I talk with Katie Mitchell, MSCPT, CAT (C) of Thrive NeuroSport. Katie is a Registered Physiotherapist and Certified Athletic Therapist CAT(C) working at Woolwich Physiotherapy in Elmira, Ontario. She is currently doing her PhD. Katie's research is based on how vision guides movement in athletes, particularly in dynamic tasks. Katie assesses visuomotor performance and balance in athletes who are recovering from concussion to determine return to sport.
We talk about how she has translated the findings into her own clinical practice. As well as some interesting future directions with neuro-optometry.
Katie on visuomotor function: "vision guides movement, one of my favourite analogies is in a grocery store aisle and you see the item on the shelf that you want. Vision is what guides the reaching motion to pick up that item. Vision provides us with variables in our environment (ex: item on the shelf) that provide opportunities for movement. When that information becomes skewed, that's when we cannot perceive depth and motion properly and we become more unstable with our balance."