Cognitive contributions to motor control

When acting in an uncertain environment, cognitive structures in the brain are engaged to analyze and decipher the problem structure, and to set the parameters that the motor system uses to program the needed action. These processes are especially important in the early stages of learning, when the action needed to achieve a goal is unknown. Most of my work uses neuroimaging methods to study functional interactions between motor and non-motor structures as this learning is taking place.

My research typically studies motor adaptation after a visuomotor transformation (as a simple example, how subjects learn to operate a broken computer mouse, which always moves at an angle relative to the movement of the hand). I’m particularly interested in explicit processes – that is, what happens when (and if) subjects become aware of the task manipulation, and make a strategic decision to counteract it.