Jürgen Konczak, Ph.D., Dr. rer. nat. habil.

Professor, School of Kinesiology Director, Human Sensorimotor Control Laboratory

E-MAIL: [email protected]


Research Interests:

The long-term goal of the research in my laboratory is to understand how the human brain controls movement. In the attempt to answer this question, I have been studying a variety of human populations using neuropsychological, psychophysical, electrophysiological and biomechanical recordings as well as systems modeling (neural networks) and brain imaging techniques.

My lab has two primary research foci. The first focus is to understand the etiology and mechanisms of neurological diseases that affect the motor system. In the past, much of our work has centered around patients with dysfunctions of the cerebellum or the basal ganglia.

In addition, I have always have been interested in the development of motor function. Thus, my second research focus centers around how infants and children learn to control their bodies and how they acquire motor skills.

My lab website is: http:/hsc.umn.edu


Selected Publications:

(For a comprehensive list of recent publications, refer to PubMed, a service provided by the National Library of Medicine.)

  • Draganova R, Pfaffenrot V, Steiner KM, Göricke SL, Elangovan N, Timmann D, Konczak J. Neurostructural changes and declining sensorimotor function due to cerebellar cortical degeneration. J Neurophysiol. 2021 May 1;125(5):1735-1745.
  • Wang Y, Zhu H, Elangovan N, Cappello L, Sandini G, Masia L, Konczak J. A robot-aided visuomotor wrist training induces gains in proprioceptive and movement accuracy in the contralateral wrist. Sci Rep. 2021 Mar 5;11(1):5281.
  • Tseng YT, Chen FC, Tsai CL, Konczak J. Upper limb proprioception and fine motor function in young pianists. Hum Mov Sci. 2021 Feb;75:102748.
  • Yeh IL, Holst-Wolf J, Elangovan N, Cuppone AV, Lakshminarayan K, Capello L, Masia L, Konczak J. Effects of a robot-aided somatosensory training on proprioception and motor function in stroke survivors. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2021 May 10;18(1):77.
  • Avanzino L, Cherif A, Crisafulli O, Carbone F, Zenzeri J, Morasso P, Abbruzzese G, Pelosin E, Konczak J. Tactile and proprioceptive dysfunction differentiates cervical dystonia with and without tremor. Neurology. 2020;94(6):e639-e650.
  • Elangovan N, Yeh IL, Holst-Wolf J, Konczak J. A robot-assisted sensorimotor training program can improve proprioception and motor function in stroke survivors. IEEE Int Conf Rehabil Robot. 2019 Jun;2019:660-664.
  • Khosravani S, Mahnan A, Yeh IL, Watson PJ, Zhang Y, Goding G, Konczak J. Atypical somatosensory-motor cortical response during vowel vocalization in spasmodic dysphonia. Clin Neurophysiol. 2019;130(6):1033-1040.
  • Tseng YT, Holst-Wolf JM, Tsai CL, Chen FC, Konczak J. Haptic perception is altered in children with developmental coordination disorder. Neuropsychologia. 2019;127:29-34.
  • Elangovan N, Tuite PJ, Konczak J. Somatosensory training improves proprioception and untrained motor function in Parkinson's disease. Front Neurol. 2018 Dec 10;9:1053.
  • Tseng YT, Tsai CL, Chen FC, Konczak J. Wrist position sense acuity and its relation to motor dysfunction in children with developmental coordination disorder. Neurosci Lett. 2018 May 1;674:106-111.
  • Cuppone AV, Semprini M, Konczak J. Consolidation of human somatosensory memory during motor learning. Behav Brain Res. 2018 Jul 16;347:184-192.
  • Tseng YT, Tsai CL, Chen FC, Konczak J. Position sense dysfunction affects proximal and distal arm joints in children with developmental coordination disorder. J Mot Behav. 2017 Dec 28:1-10.
  • Elangovan N, Cappello L, Masia L, Aman J, Konczak J. A robot-aided visuo-motor training that improves proprioception and spatial accuracy of untrained movement. Sci Rep. 2017 Dec 6;7(1):17054.
  • Van de Winckel A, Tseng YT, Chantigian D, Lorant K, Zarandi Z, Buchanan J, Zeffiro TA, Larson M, Olson-Kellogg B, Konczak J, Keller-Ross ML. Age-related decline of wrist position sense and its relationship to specific physical training. Front Hum Neurosci. 2017 Nov 21;11:570.
  • Semprini M, Cuppone AV, Delis I, Squeri V, Panzeri S, Konczak J. Biofeedback signals for robotic rehabilitation: Assessment of wrist muscle activiation patterns in healthy humans. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng. 2017;25(7):883-892.
  • Marini F, Squeri V, Morasso P, Campus C, Konczak J, Masia L. Robot-aided developmental assessment of wrist proprioception in children. J Neuroeng Rehabil. 2017 Jan 9;14(1):3.
  • Cuppone AV, Squeri V, Semprini M, Masia L, Konczak J. Robot-assisted proprioceptive training with added vibro-tactile feeback enhances somatosensory and motor performance. PLoS One. 2016 Oct 11;11(10):e0164511.
  • Holst-Wolf JM, Yeh IL, Konczak J. Development of proprioceptive acuity in typically developing children: Normative data on forearm position sense. Front Hum Neurosci. 2016 Aug 29;10:436.
  • Marini F, Squeri V, Morasso P, Konczak J, Masia L. Robot-aided mapping of writst proprioceptive acuity across a 3D workspace. PLoS One. 2016 Aug 18;11(8):e0161155.
  • Jacobi H, Alfes J, Minnerop M, Konczak J, Klockgether T, Timmann D. Dual task effect on postural control in patients with degenerative cerebellar disorders. Cerebellum Ataxias. 2015;2:6.
  • Cappello L, Elangovan N, Contu S, Khosravani S, Konczak J, Masia L. Robot-aided assessment of wrist proprioception. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015;9:198.
  • Konczak J, Aman JE, Chen YW, Li KY, Watson PJ. Impaired limb proprioception in adults with spasmodic dysphonia. JJ Voice. 2015;29(6):777.e17-23.
  • Valberg SJ, Lewis SS, Shivers JL, Barnes NE, Konczak J, Draper AC, Armién AG. The equine movement disorder "Shivers" Is associated with selective cerebellar Purkinje cell axonal degeneration. Vet Pathol. 2015;52(6):1087-98.
  • Aman JE, Elangovan N, Yeh IL, Konczak J. The effectiveness of proprioceptive training for improving motor function: a systematic review. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015;8:1075.
  • Elangovan N, Herrmann A, Konczak J. Assessing proprioceptive function: evaluating joint position matching methods against psychophysical thresholds. Phys Ther. 2014;94(4):553-61.
  • Aman JE, Abosch A, Bebler M, Lu CH, Konczak J. Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation improves somatosensory function in Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord. 2014 Feb;29(2):221-8.
  • Musselman KE, Stoyanov CT, Marasigan R, Jenkins ME, Konczak J, Morton SM, Bastian AJ. Prevalence of ataxia in children: a systematic review. Neurology. 2014;82(1):80-9.
Picture of Jurgen Konczak