We want to understand what the spinal cord really knows — and how that knowledge can help people recover function after injury.
At Stecina Lab, we study how spinal networks organize movement and function using experimental physiology, human research, and accumulated data.
Movement is only part of the story.
Spinal cord injury affects far more than walking. It shapes everyday posture, trunk stability, sensory perception, autonomic regulation, and personal independence.
Understanding how spinal circuits process signals and organize control outside the laboratory is key to identifying which functions can be measured, preserved, or improved.
Understand the circuit
How spinal networks organize movement, posture, and other functions.
Learn from the data
What years of experiments and recordings can still teach us about how spinal circuits work.
Test it in people
Which mechanisms identified experimentally can also be measured or influenced in human physiology.
Measure recovery
How different aspects of function change following spinal cord injury over time.
Understanding the circuit is the beginning.
The challenge is knowing what carries forward.
Fundamental neuroscientific discovery remains central to our work. The essential question is determining which mechanisms identified experimentally remain meaningful across data, models, and human physiology.
Can a spinal circuit mapped experimentally also be influenced in people with thoracic spinal cord injury?
What can years of locomotion recordings tell us about which spinal circuits are worth investigating in people?
How do thoracic cholinergic interneurons contribute to postural control independently of locomotor rhythm?
How do motor, sensory, and autonomic measures change over the first years after spinal cord injury?
Katinka Stecina, PhD
Associate Professor | Spinal Cord Research Centre
The spinal cord is an active, intricate processor. Our work is driven by curiosity about how its networks organize function — and how we can connect that understanding across experiments, data, and human physiology.
Selected Work & News
Publications and announcements supporting our broader research program.
Serious science.
Human lab.
We value intellectual rigor, curiosity, and interdisciplinary collaboration — but we also value the people behind the research. We build a supportive environment for trainees who ask good questions. And yes, there is always cake.
