Dr Tjerk Zult

Tjerk is interested in how motor performance is affected in individuals with vision loss, neurological impairment, and orthopaedic injuries. He investigates the underlying causes of motor impairment, which he then treats with exercise interventions.

[email protected]
Twitter: @Tjerk_Zult
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/tjerk-zult
ResearchGate: researchgate.net/profile/Tjerk_Zult

Background

Tjerk obtained his BSc (Hons) and MSc in Human Movement Sciences at the University of Groningen, the Netherlands. After graduation, he was successful in his application to begin a fully-funded PhD at the University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands. His PhD research evaluated the clinical relevance and neural mechanisms of unilateral resistance training with augmented sensory feedback in healthy and diseased individuals.

Tjerk is currently investigating how vision loss affects the performance of everyday activities. He regularly presents his work at national and international conferences and is an invited reviewer for various journals in human physiology and sports medicine.

Spoken Languages

• Dutch
• English

Research interests

• Human motion analysis

• Human neurophysiology
• Gaze behaviour
• Vison loss
• Neurological impairments
• Orthopaedic injuries

Tjerk is interested in the underlying neurophysiological and biomechanical mechanisms of motor performance in healthy and diseased individuals. His current research focuses on how individuals with vision loss perform everyday activities. He captures human movements with the VICON system, measures gaze behaviour using an eye-tracker, and examines balance using a force plate. Combining these three measures provide insight in the underlying mechanism of why individuals with vision loss experience more difficulty in performing everyday tasks and why they fall more often.

Areas of research supervision

• Undergraduate and postgraduate research projects

Qualifications

• PhD in Human Movement Sciences, University of Groningen
• MSc in Human Movement Sciences, University of Groningen
• BSc (Hons) in Human Movement Sciences, University of Groningen
• Qualification in ethics application procedures (ICH-GCP), Wenckenbach Institute

Memberships, editorial boards

• Member, International Society of Posture and Gait Research (ISPGR)
• Member, International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology (ISEK)
• Member, American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM)
• Member, European College of Sport Science (ECSS)
• Member, Society for Neuroscience (SfN)
• Member, Dutch Society for Human Movement Sciences (VvBN)
• Member of review panels for 14 international journals

Selected recent publications

Zult, T., Gokeler, A., Van Raay, J.J., Brouwer, R.W., Zijdewind, I., Farthing, J.P. and Hortobagyi, T., 2018. Cross-education does not accelerate the rehabilitation of neuromuscular functions after ACL reconstruction: a randomized controlled clinical trial. European Journal of Applied Physiology, pp1-15.

Zult, T., Gokeler, A., Van Raay, J.J., Brouwer, R.W., Zijdewind, I., Farthing, J.P. and Hortobagyi, T., 2018. Cross-education does not improve early and late-phase rehabilitation outcomes after ACL reconstruction: a randomized controlled clinical trial. Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy, pp1-13.

Monaghan, K., Simpson, D., Ehrensberger, M. and Zult, T., 2018. Unilateral strength training with and without a mirror to improve motor function after stroke: Past, present, and future. Physiotherapy Practice and Research, 39(1), pp1-4.

Zult, T., Gokeler, A., Van Raay, J.J., Brouwer, R.W., Zijdewind, I. and Hortobagyi, T., 2017. An anterior cruciate ligament injury does not affect the neuromuscular function of the non-injured leg except for dynamic balance and voluntary quadriceps activation. Knee Surgery, Sports Traumatology, Arthroscopy: Official Journal of the ESSKA, 25(1), pp172-183.

Zult, T., Goodall, S., Thomas, K., Solnik, S., Hortobagyi, T. and Howatson, G., 2016. Mirror Training Augments the Cross-education of Strength and Affects Inhibitory Paths. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 48(6), pp1001-1013.

Zult, T., Goodall, S., Thomas, K., Hortobagyi, T. and Howatson, G., 2015. Mirror illusion reduces motor cortical inhibition in the ipsilateral primary motor cortex during forceful unilateral muscle contractions. Journal of neurophysiology, 113(7), pp. 2262-2270.

Zult, T., Howatson, G., Kadar, E.E., Farthing, J.P. and Hortobagyi, T., 2014. Role of the mirror-neuron system in cross-education. Sports Medicine (Auckland, N.Z.), 44(2), pp159-178.

Howatson, G., Zult, T., Farthing, J.P., Zijdewind, I. and Hortobagyi, T., 2013. Mirror training to augment cross-education during resistance training: a hypothesis. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, pp396.

Recent presentations and conferences

Invited talk at the Faculty Away Day, Faculty of Health, Education, Medicine, and Social Care, Cambridge, United Kingdom (2018). Title: Adaptations in obstacle negotiation due to sight impairment.

British Congress of Optometry and Vision Science annual meeting, Cambridge, United Kingdom (2018). Oral presentation: The effects of vision loss and time-pressure on movement kinematics and gaze behaviour during an obstacle crossing task.  

International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology 22th congress. Dublin, Ireland (2018). Oral presentation: Increased time-pressure results in a less cautious obstacle crossing strategy in subjects with and without simulated visual impairment.

International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology 22th congress. Dublin, Ireland (2018). Poster presentation: Cross-education does not accelerate the recovery of muscle strength and neuromuscular function after ACL reconstruction: a randomized controlled clinical trial.

Invited talk at the Institute of Technology, Sligo, Ireland (2018). Title: Cross-education training to accelerate recovery after unilateral orthopaedic and neurological impairments.

Annual symposium of the Vision and Eye Research Unit (VERU), School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University (2018). Oral presentation: The effects of vision loss and time-pressure on obstacle crossing behaviour.

Annual symposium of the Vision and Eye Research Unit (VERU), School of Medicine, Anglia Ruskin University (2017). Oral presentation: Inter-limb mechanisms and clinical relevance of cross-education in humans.

American College of Sports Medicine 63^rd Annual Meeting, Boston, United States of America (2016). Thematic poster presentation: Unilateral ACL injury does not affect neuromuscular function in the non-injured leg.

Society for Neuroscience 45^th Annual Meeting, Chicago, United States of America (2015). Poster presentation: Mirror training augments the cross-education of strength and reduces the contralateral silent period duration in the untrained but not the trained wrist.

Society for Neuroscience 44^th Annual Meeting, Washington, United States of America (2014). Poster presentation: Unilateral strength training while mirror viewing the exercising hand, augments cross-education and reduces cortical inhibition and corticospinal excitability.

European College of Sport Science 19^th annual congress, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2014). Oral presentation: Mirror illusion reduces motor cortical inhibition in the ipsilateral primary motor cortex during effortful unilateral muscle contractions.

Vereniging voor Bewegingswetenschappen Nederland PhD-day, Groningen, the Netherlands (2014). Oral presentation: Mirror illusion reduces motor cortical inhibition in the ipsilateral primary motor cortex during forceful unilateral contractions.

5^th International state-of-the-Art Congress, “Rehabilitation: Mobility, Exercise & Sports”, Groningen, the Netherlands (2014). Poster presentation: Mirror illusion reduces ipsilateral motor cortical inhibition in healthy young adults: implications for rehabilitation.

Vereniging voor Bewegingswetenschappen Nederland Student-day, Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2013). Oral presentation: Mirror illusion reduces motor cortical inhibition in the ipsilateral primary motor cortex during effortful unilateral wrist flexion with shortening muscle contraction.

Media experience

National (Dutch) newspapers

https://www.volkskrant.nl/wetenschap/optische-illusie-maakt-spieren-sterker~a4500478/

https://www.nrc.nl/nieuws/2017/06/12/rustende-arm-traint-gratis-mee-11049006-a1562662

Websites (Dutch)

https://dekennisvannu.nl/site/artikel/Hoe-een-spiegel-je-rustende-arm-traint/9200

https://www.fit.nl/interview/tjerk-zult