Interested in Participating in a Research Study? email Dr. Terson de Paleville daniela.tersondepaleville@louisville.edu
PUBLICATIONS
Ellee Grosser, Rachel D. Torres, Laura Weingartner, and Daniela Terson de Paleville.
Virtual reality breaks for stress reduction among graduate and dental students. Advances in Physiology Education 2025 49:4, 1070-1075
Rachel Torres, Camilo Castillo, Daniela Terson de Paleville. Comparing Virtual Reality to Mental Imagery for Blood Pressure and Heart Rate Variability Improvement in People with and without Spinal Cord Injury. PRESENCE: Virtual and Augmented Reality 2025. www.direct.mit.edu/pvar/article-abstract/doi/10.1162/pres.a.7/131101/Comparing-Virtual-Reality-to-Mental-Imagery-for?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Torres R, Rashed H, Mathur P, Castillo C, Abell T, Terson de Paleville D. (2023) Autogenic biofeedback training improves autonomic responses in a participant with cervical motor complete spinal cord injury- case report. Spinal Cord Ser Cases. 2023 Jul 12;9(1):31. doi: 10.1038/s41394-023-00593-3. PMID: 37438337; PMCID: PMC10338546. www.nature.com/articles/s41394-023-00593-3
Students' Researchers
Rachel Torres, PhD
Dr. Torres being hooded by Dr. Terson de Paleville during the UofL hooding ceremony in May 2024. Dr. Torres completed her PhD in Interdisciplinary Translational Neurosciences funded by a grant from NASA-KY space consortium. Dr. Torres is currently holding a postdoctoral position at the EAT lab (Eating Anxiety Lab) under the supervision of Dr. Levinson continuing exploring her passion on the physiological relationship between mind and body, and assessing Autonomic Nervous System among various populations.
RESIDENT EDUCATION
Ayush Gupta, MD Neurology
Coming soon with their Awesome ongoing projects!
Physiology Graduate Students
Hayley Benson
Hayley presented the findings of our investigation in collaboration with Dr. Lorna Segall (Music Therapy). Music therapy students engaged in active learning activities using VR to deepen their understanding of physiology and connect physiological concepts to their fields.
Leonardo Almonor
Leonardo presented the preliminary findings of our study on the implementation of Virtual Reality for Neurophysiology education using the iXRLabs application.
Amber Ballard
Did you know that the first Virtual Reality Headset was created in the 1940s? Physiology graduate student Amber Ballard investigated the history of Virtual Reality and the perceptions of Active Learning and incorporation of technology in Physiology courses and curricula.
Jakiyah Lee
Physiology graduate student Jakiyah Lee presented the results from an outreach program at Pleasure Ridge Park High School, a health academy at JCPS. This experience allowed her to combine her passions for community-engaged scholarship, teaching and research.
Shekinah Phillips
Shekinah Phillips presented the preliminary findings of our study on educators' perceptions of implementing VR in physiology education.
MEDICAL STUDENTS
Sydney Wichmann
Sydney is a second year medical student and a graduated from the Physiology Department who just finished her first year summer research experience! Sydney presented at the KY Chapter of the American Physiological Society on August 2024. She investigated the perceptions of graduate students using active learning and Virtual Reality for learning the electrical activity of the heart.
Derek Bass
Derek Bass is a second-year medical student who just finished his first summer research experience! In August 2024, Derek presented at the KY Chapter of the American Physiological Society. Derek is investigating the perceptions and learning of Neurology Residents using Virtual Reality for neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. Derek's background in graphic design was an asset for the team creating the posters!
DENTAL STUDENTS
Ellee Grosser
Virtual reality (VR) has been proposed as an effective tool for reducing stress but has not been tested among trainees experiencing high academic pressures. Flowborne is a free VR application that guides users in diaphragmatic breathing within a calming virtual environment. Rhythmic breathing stimulates the parasympathetic nervous system, helping to lower heart rate, anxiety, and stress. Ellee lead this study, and findings suggested that VR biofeedback is a promising tool for enhancing relaxation in an academic setting.
Jenny Nguyen
Coming soon with their Awesome ongoing projects!
COMMUNITY ENGAGED SCHOLARSHIP
Oral Health Outreach Project led by Jenny Nguyen, DMD
CONGRATULATIONS!
RESEARCH! LOUISVILLE 2024 AWARDEES FROM THE PAL LAB: SYDNEY WICHMAN AND ELLEE GROSSER, CONGRATULATIONS!
PAL lab team presented at the Kentucky Physiological Society 2024 in Lexington, KY.