Professor
CPM C110F
(205) 975-5089
Research Interests: rehabilitation psychology, neurorehabilitation, neuroplasticity, health psychology, positive psychology
Office Hours: By appointment
Education:
- A.B., Princeton University, Economics
- M.A., University of Alabama at Birmingham, Clinical (Medical) Psychology
- Ph.D., University of Alabama at Birmingham, Clinical (Medical) Psychology
Dr. Uswatte’s research has been funded by the US Department of Veterans Affairs, National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research, National Institutes of Health, James S. McDonnell Foundation, American Heart Association, and Positive Psychology Network. He received the Mitchell Rosenthal Early Career Research Award from the Division of Rehabilitation Psychology of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 2008, was elected President of that division in 2013, and received the Roger Barker Distinguished Research Contribution Award from the same division in 2020. He was made an APA Fellow in 2011.
His area of clinical specialization is rehabilitation psychology.
Dr. Uswatte’s teaching interests include research methods, statistics, the psychology of strengths and virtues (positive psychology), and the psychology of social inequality.
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Research Interests
Dr. Uswatte has two main areas of research. The first is the roles of behavioral factors and neuroplasticity in the development and rehabilitation of disability after nervous system injury. The second is human psychological strengths such as hope, kindness, and gratitude.
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Graduate Students
- Current graduate students include Olesya Iosipchuk and Alexa Grant.
- Past graduate students include Christi Perkins Hu, Lynne Gauthier, Joydip Barman, Brad Sokal, Chelsey Sterling, Tyler Rickards, Michelle Haddad, Brent Womble, and Yue Zhang.
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Select Publications
- Wolf, S. L., Winstein, C. J., Miller, J. P., Taub, E., Uswatte, G., Morris, D., Giuliani, C., Light, K. E., & Nichols-Larsen, D. (2006). Effect of Constraint-Induced Movement therapy on upper extremity function 3-9 months after stroke: the EXCITE randomized clinical trial. JAMA, 296, 2095-2104.
- Uswatte, G., & Taub, E. (2013). Constraint-Induced Movement therapy: a method for harnessing neuroplasticity to treat motor disorders. In S. Waxman, D. G. Stein, D. Swaab, & H. Fields (Series Eds.) and M. Merzenich, M. Nahum, & T. Van Vleet (Vol. Eds.), Progress in brain research: Vol. 207. Changing brains – applying brain plasticity to advance and recover human ability (pp. 379-401). Amsterdam: Elsevier Publishing.
- Sokal, B., Uswatte, G., Barman, J., Brewer, M., Byrom E., Latten, J., Joseph, J., Serafim, C., Ghaffari, T., & Sarkar, N. (2014). Network of movement and proximity sensors for monitoring upper-extremity motor activity after stroke: proof of principle. Archives of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, 95, 499-505.
- Dunn, D. S., Uswatte, G., & Elliott, T. R. (2017). Happiness and resilience following physical disability. In C. R. Snyder, S. J. Lopez, L. M. Edwards, & S. C. Marques (Eds.), The Oxford handbook of positive psychology (3rd ed.). New York: Oxford University Press. doi: 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199396511.013.54
- Uswatte, G., Taub, E., Bowman, M., Delgado, A., Bryson, C., Morris, D., McKay, S., Barman, J., & Mark, V. W. (2018). Rehabilitation of stroke patients with plegic hands: randomized controlled trial of expanded Constraint-Induced Movement therapy. Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 36, 225-244. doi: 10.3233/RNN-170792.