David A. Sherman

Assistant Professor, Physical Therapist
Northeastern University, Movement Neuroscience Laboratory

Selected & Upcoming Talks

APTA CSM 2025 (Houston)

- Beyond Strength: Rethinking Muscle Weakness and Optimizing Rehabilitation of Patients with Knee Joint Injury
- Quantifying Quadriceps Muscle Inhibition through Modulation of Corticospinal Drive via Tibial and Femoral Nerve Afferents
- Alterations in Quadriceps Torque Steadiness after ACL Reconstruction: Which Metrics Provide Unique Information?

Stay Tuned!
UCF IEPRS Conference 2024 (Orlando)
- Neural Determinants of Motor Function in ACL Rehabilitation
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The American College of Sports Medicine 2024 Annual Meeting (Boston, MA)
- Injury History, Not Corticospinal Excitability, Explains Slower Quadriceps Motor Unit Firing After ACL Reconstruction
- Corticospinal Excitability Is Associated With Quadriceps Motor Unit Action Potential Amplitudes Irrespective of ACL Reconstruction
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Osteoarthritis Research Society International 2024 World Congress
- Association Between Frequent Knee Pain And Pain Severity With Quadriceps Strength Over 5-Years
- Frequent Knee Pain Contributes To Lower Quadriceps Strength, But Not Decline In Strength Over 4-Years
Read the abstract
Isokinetic Medical Group 2024 Football Medicine Conference (Madrid, Spain)
- Interpersonal Coordination Between Female Soccer Players: Leader-Follower Roles
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APTA CSM 2024 (Boston)
- Reconstructing our Athletes: Optimizing Rehabilitation of Persons with Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury
- Running a Research Lab is Like Running a Small Business.
- Methods, Tools, and Measurement for the Advancement of Interpersonal Motor Coordination Research in Physical Therapy
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APTA CSM 2023 (San Diego)
- Weaker quadriceps corticomuscular coherence in individuals following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction during force tracing
- Brain activation and single-limb balance deficits following anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: neuroplasticity and potential treatments
- ‘AM I’ doing this right? Treating Arthrogenic muscle inhibition after ACLR
- Accuracy of a Portable Device for Measuring Plantarflexor Muscle Strength and Central Drive
Download the Slides
NATA Convention & Expo (2022)

Presentations included:
Deficits in motor unit amplitude and recruitment threshold following ACL reconstruction: Evidence of diminished quadriceps motor neuron pool.

Read the Paper

Selected Publications

Knee joint pathology and efferent pathway dysfunction: Mapping muscle inhibition from motor cortex to muscle force. Sherman DA, Rush J, Glaviano NR, Norte GE. Musculoskelet Sci Pract. 2024. doi: 10.1016/j.msksp.2024.103204.

Interpersonal Coordination between Female Soccer Players: Leader-Follower Roles within a Collision-Avoidance Task. Fernandes CA, Norte GE, Schwab SM, Gokeler A, Murray A, Bazett-Jones DM, Sherman DA. Int J Sports Phys Ther. 2024. doi: 10.26603/001c.116156.

Neural drive and motor unit characteristics after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction: Implications for quadriceps weakness. Sherman DA, Rush JL, Stock M, Ingersoll CD, Norte GE. PeerJ. 2023. doi: 10.7717/peerj.16261.

Weaker Quadriceps Corticomuscular Coherence in Individuals Following ACL Reconstruction during Force Tracing. Sherman DA, et al. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2023. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000003080.

Arthrogenic Muscle Inhibition: Best Evidence, Mechanisms, and Theory for Treating the Unseen in Clinical Rehabilitation. Norte GE, Rush JR, Sherman DA. J Sport Rehabil. 2021. 10.1123/jsr.2021-0139.

View my entire Bibliography here.

Current Projects

Application of new muscle deformation sensors for the detection of clinical impairments
Development and validation of a portable, neurostimulation-integrated, force measurement platform
Sensory and corticospinal contributions to motor unit dysfunction in the quadriceps muscle
Mapping rate of torque development and force steadiness to neurophysiological impairments
Neural impairments associated with pain sensitization in knee osteoarthritis

Mentorship
& Outreach

I am currently the co-director of the Movement Neuroscience Laboratory at Northeastern University with appointments in both Physical Therapy and Electrical and Computer Engineering. I teach courses in Neuroscience, Physiology, and Motor Control. If you are interested in pursuing a PhD in my field, please reach out. I am always looking to connect with excellent candidates.

I am fortunate to have personally contributed to enhancing the success of students through teaching, service, and mentorship in clinical, classroom, and laboratory settings. My leadership and teaching philosophy focuses on leveraging an inclusive and open environment to foster intellectual curiosity, critical appraisal, and synthesis of complex and diverse knowledge. Further, I believe a classroom needs to be innovative, multi-faceted, inter-disciplinary, and collaborative.

Mentors & Collaborators

I am truly fortunate to be supported by an incredible team of scientists, mentors, and friends. Their expertise and belief in me has made all the difference in my personal and professional success.