General Information
Biography
I am an Assistant Professor of Biomechanics and Director of the Nonlinear Analysis Core. My research is focused on nonlinear time series analysis with application to human movement variability. I am a quantitatively trained movement scientist with broad education and training in biomechanics, cognitive science, statistics, and motor control. My current and future teaching assignments are on topics such as Biostatistics in Biomechanics and Nonlinear Time Series Analysis. My early research focused on describing statistical patterns that emerge in neural activity and human movements like those involved in gait and posture as well complex forms of behavior like driving. A major focus of my ongoing research is to understand how statistical patterns in gait and posture change over natural course of aging and as the result of disease and injury. Other recent work has focused on developing new time series analysis methods for studying human movements and other forms of behavior.
Teaching Interests
Biostatistics in Biomechanics, Nonlinear Time Series Analysis, Perception and Action
Research Interests
Human movement variability, human performance, cognitive science, and nonlinear time series analysis
Awards and Honors
Best Paper Award, Scholarship/Research - 2021
Education
Ph D, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA, Perception, Action, and Cognition/Psychology, 2016
Scholarship/Research/Creative Activity
Selected Publications
Likens, Aaron, Kent, Jenny, Sloan, C., Wurdeman, Shane, Stergiou, Nicholas. 2020. Stochastic Resonance Reduces Sway and Gait Variability in Individuals With Unilateral Transtibial Amputation: A Pilot Study, Frontiers in Physiology, 11.
Likens, Aaron, Amazeen, Polemnia, Stevens, Ron, Galloway, Trysha, Gorman, Jamie. 2014. Neural signatures of team coordination are revealed by multifractal analysis, Social neuroscience, 9, 3, 219--234.
Raffalt, Peter, Stergiou, Nick, Sommerfeld, Joel, Likens, Aaron. 2021. The temporal pattern and the probability distribution of visual cueing can alter the structure of stride-to-stride variability, Neuroscience Letters, 763.
Likens, Aaron, Wiltshire, Travis. 2021. Windowed multiscale synchrony: modeling time-varying and scale-localized interpersonal coordination dynamics, Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 16, 1-2, 232--245.
Externally Funded Research
Gaitprints as Predictors of Disease and Disability for Effective Rehabilitation Engineering, National Science Foundation, Federal, 08/01/2021 - 07/31/2024
Repeated Bouts of Physical Stress: A Lab Based Simulated Multiday Mission Scenario, National Strategic Research Institute, Other Agencies, 08/24/2020 - 08/23/2023
Service
Department, College, and University
Academic Standards and Procedures, Committee Member, 08/01/2021 - 08/31/2021