Pershia is a current PhD student who joined the lab in fall of 2020 after completing her bachelor’s degree in Kinesiology at McMaster University. She recently completed her master's degree in Neuroscience in the lab. During which, she investigated the influence of trait anxiety on gait when under situations of postural threat and cognitive load using virtual reality paradigms. During this time, she also investigated how affective conditions such as depression can impact walking patterns in individuals with Parkinson's Disease.
During her PhD, she hopes to extend her master's work with virtual reality to the elderly population and in individuals with neurodegenerative disease in order to understand how nonmotor symptoms, like anxiety, can impact behavior. Particularly, she is interested in the interplay between emotional, cognitive, and sensorimotor mechanisms in contributing to freezing of gait in Parkinson's Disease. She hopes to become a professor in the future to teach and mentor individuals about the many facets of research and applications within healthcare and smart technology.