Ongoing basic science research includes: development of an aged, post-acute animal model of stroke; investigating the effects of aging on motor recovery after photothrombotic sensorimotor cortex lesion in the rat; studying centrally-acting drug effects on motor performance in an aged, post-acute animal model of stroke; using the photochemical lesion as a model for study of motor recovery in the post-acute phase after stroke: MRI and histological features with locomotor response to training and amphetamine treatment. This work is a collaborative effort with the Department of Neurosurgery at Mayo Clinic in Rochester and the Experimental MR Center - Department of Clinical Neuroscience, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.

Clinical research activity includes Medical Director and Co-Principle Investigator for the Mayo Traumatic Brain Injury Model System funded by the Department of Education through the National Institute for Disability and Rehabilitation Research. Currently funded projects include investigation of: physical impairment, health care costs, disability, and outcome by initial injury severity compared to an orthopedic control group; long-term outcome by methods of post-acute rehabilitation pathways among adult and elderly persons following TBI compared to orthopedic controls; the epidemiology of TBI, in Olmsted County, MN 1985-1999; effects of traumatic brain injury on mortality: A population-based analysis.