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Piitulainen is engaged in interdisciplinary research in the fields of biomechanics, neurophysiology and brain research, working in close cooperation with engineers, physicians and other experts. 

“My research is comprehensive research on the functional anatomy of the human sensorimotor system,” Piitulainen says. 

“It ranges from the brain to the muscles and with a special focus on the brain's motor control and the role of the bodily proprioceptive sensory feedback in this control.”  

Piitulainen’s Sensorimotor Systems Neuroscience (MOTOR) research group is currently studying the brain basis of human proprioception and its meaning for different diseases and impairments affecting the motor system:  

"We seek to accurately map the proprioceptive representation areas in the human cortex to feedback from different parts of the body, for example for different fingers of the hand, and we study the causal neuronal processes in the loop between proprioceptive feedback and motor outpu in the brain-body interaction, that is, how the brain-generated motor commands to muscles are changed due to the proprioceptive feedback from the body."  

"In addition, we are developing a new, wireless EEG (electroencephalography) method, by which we can study the brain during physical activity in naturalistic conditions and surroundings in athletes or patients, for example." 

The brain research is advancing along with methodological development, and Piitulainen with his research group is among the first to utilise some of the latest methods, many of which have been developed by themselves or their close collaborative partners. The new multi-locus TMS method for magnetic brain stimulation, which Piitulainen has already used in the laboratory of its developers at Aalto University, is opening completely new possibilities for the sensorimotor research of the brain.  

“We plan to be among the first labs to apply this new method in our Functional Brain Lab (FBL) of the Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences,” he explains. 

“The FBL is part of JYU’s joint brain research infrastructure, the development of which I have invested in over the last several years.”  

The new method is important for basic research, Piitulainen says, as it helps researchers to better understand the function of neuronal networks in the brain: 

“This is also pivotal for understanding the mechanisms of diseases that cause motor disorders as well as essential for more effective rehabilitation or treatment, which can alleviate motor disorders, thus affecting positively the entire life of children with cerebral palsy, for example.” 

Piitulainen has published 58 peer-reviewed scientific publications and more than 80 conference abstracts in the fields of the biology of physical activity and brain research. He has given numerous presentations and invited commentaries at international conferences. He is also organising the highly-regarded ISEK Congress of the International Society of Electrophysiology and Kinesiology in 2026 in Jyväskylä. In addition, he has worked as a biomechanical expert at the Motion Analysis Laboratory, Helsinki University Hospital since 2014 and as a Visiting Professor at Aalto University, Department of Neuroscience and Medical Technology since 2019. 

Piitulainen defended his doctoral dissertation on biomechanics in 2010 at the Ģ��ֱ��. After this he first worked as a postdoctoral researcher in the Brain Research Unit of Aalto University and since 2016 as an Academy Research Fellow at the university’s Department of Neuroscience and Biomedical Engineering. He has worked as a full-time Associate Professor in Neuro Research (tenure track) at the Ģ��ֱ�� from 2019 to 2023 and as a professor since 2024. 

More information:

Professor Harri Piitulainen 
harri.t.piitulainen@jyu.fi, +358405679225