Dr Justin Andrushko

Assistant Professor

School: Sport Exercise and Rehabilitation

Justin is currently a Vice-Chancellor Fellow and Assistant Professor in Sport and Exercise Sciences. Before joining Northumbria University, Justin was a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research funded Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of British Columbia where his research focused on understanding the impact of exercise on motor recovery, and investigating the role of the cortico-reticulospinal tract as a compensatory pathway for motor recovery in individuals that have suffered a stroke

Justin completed his M.Sc. and Ph.D. in the College of Kinesiology at the University of Saskatchewan where his work focused on the inter-limb transfer of unilateral motor training to the opposite untrained limb, often termed cross-education, and understanding how the brain and nervous system adapt to motor training and disuse.

Justin has held visiting researcher appointments at Deakin University (Australia), the University of Oxford (United Kingdom), and Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada) where he worked with Dr. Ashlee Hendy (Deakin), Professor Charlotte Stagg (Oxford), and Professor Michelle Ploughman (Memorial).

Key Collaborators (Listed alphabetically by surname):

Northumbria University:

Paul Ansdell; Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Stuart Goodall; Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Glyn Howatson; Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Luke Hughes; Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Adam McDonnell; Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation
Rodrigo Vitorio; Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation

External Collaborators:

Lara Boyd; Physical Therapy - University of British Columbia
Joshua Carr; Kinesiology - Kansas State University
Jason DeFreitas; Exercise Science - Syracuse University
Chelsea Ekstrand; Neuroscience - University of Lethbridge
Jonathan Farthing; Kinesiology - University of Saskatchewan
Dustin Grooms; Physiotherapy - Ohio University
Dawson Kidgell; Physiotherapy - Monash University
Charlotte Stagg; Human Neurophysiology - University of Oxford

Email Justin

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

Justin is a member of the Neuromuscular Function Research Group at Northumbria University. As a member of this group, he investigates the neuromuscular/neurophysiological mechanisms of exercise and motor training strategies to enhance human motor performance. Justin also has an interest in developing feasible, patient-centred protocols that are clinically efficacious for individuals that have suffered an orthopaedic or neurological injury primarily affecting one side of the body.

Cross-education:

Justin is primarily interested in understanding the neural mechanisms of the cross-education effect; where exercising one side of the body elicits a positive benefit to the same muscle group on the opposite side of the body. Though mechanistic investigations Justin aims to identify how we can maximise the effectiveness of cross-education and determine how best cross-education can be implemented to improve rehabilitation outcomes after injury.

Neuromuscular adaptations to resistance training:

Justin is interested in studying how exercise variables such as intensity, volume, and contraction type impact neuroplasticity throughout the neuromuscular system. Justin has a particular interest in the effectiveness of eccentric (i.e., muscle lengthening) muscle actions and how they can be use clinically to maximise motor recovery outcomes. Additionally, within this research focus, Justin carries out work that investigates the role of the cortico-reticulospinal tract (A secondary motor pathway) and brain activity in the ipsilateral motor network (i.e., the same side of the brain as the moving limb) for motor function, adaptations and performance.

Justin uses the following tools and methods to address his research questions:

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
- Functional MRI (fMRI)
- Diffisuion Tensor Imaging (DTI)
- Structural MRI (Volumetric Analyses)
Isokinetic Dynamometry
Electromyography (EMG)
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)
Peripheral Nerve Stimulation

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Potential role of cross-education in early-stage rehabilitation after anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction, Andrushko, J., Carr, J., Farthing, J., Lepley, L., DeFreitas, J., Goodall, S., Hendy, A., Howatson, G., Grooms, D., Zult, T., Hortobágyi, T., Harput, G., Papandreou, M., Nosaka, K., Carson, R., Manca, A., Deriu, F., Behm, D., Kidgell, D., Clark, N., Boyd, L. 1 Dec 2023, In: British Journal of Sports Medicine
Exercise prescription and strategies to promote the cross-education of strength: a scoping review, Voskuil, C., Andrushko, J., Huddleston, B., Farthing, J., Carr, J. 1 Aug 2023, In: Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism
Repeated unilateral handgrip contractions alter functional connectivity and improve contralateral limb response times, Andrushko, J., Levenstein, J., Zich, C., Edmond, E., Campbell, J., Clarke, W., Emir, U., Farthing, J., Stagg, C. 20 Apr 2023, In: Scientific Reports
High force unimanual handgrip contractions increase ipsilateral sensorimotor activation and functional connectivity, Andrushko, J., Gould, L., Renshaw, D., Ekstrand, C., Hortobágyi, T., Borowsky, R., Farthing, J. 1 Jan 2021, In: Neuroscience
Unilateral strength training leads to muscle-specific sparing effects during opposite homologous limb immobilization, Andrushko, J., Lanovaz, J., Björkman, K., Kontulainen, S., Farthing, J. 1 Apr 2018, In: Journal of Applied Physiology
Females exhibit smaller volumes of brain activation and lower inter-subject variability during motor tasks, Andrushko, J., Rinat, S., Kirby, E., Dahlby, J., Ekstrand, C., Boyd, L. 17 Oct 2023, In: Scientific Reports

Professional Activity

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Invited talk: Accelerating recovery post-ACLR with early-stage eccentric cross-education 2024
Invited talk: Enhancing brain activity and motor function with exercise 2024
Invited talk: Priming cognitive-motor function with high-intensity exercise for chronic stroke survivors 2024
Invited talk: Cross-education: A method to offset strength attenuation during unilateral injuries 2023
Invited talk: The utility of cross-education for improving recovery from unilateral injury 2023

PGR Supervision

Venicius De Paula Silva Start Date: 05/01/2026 End Date: 30/06/2026
Luke Scott The effects and mechanisms of lower-limb cross-education during immobilisation and dual-tasking. Start Date: 01/10/2024
Madelaine Hodgson Start Date: 01/10/2025 End Date: 29/11/2025