Our goal is to delineate the brain mechanisms that govern skilled performance/learning and to develop interventions that enhance skilled movement ability in healthy and clinical populations.
Studies blend behavioural tasks with non-invasive methods to measure or influence brain activity, including single and paired-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), repetitive TMS and electroencephalography (EEG).
Skilled behaviour requires a precise balance between conscious and sub-conscious (or procedural) processes. For example, behavioural evidence indicates that allocating attention to the body’s mechanics rather than the effect of our actions can lead to decreased performance and slower rates of learning. However, the effect of allocating attention is not universal. Several exceptions have reported. Understanding how conscious decision during skilled performance shape subconscious sensorimotor control is critical to enhancing skilled performance/learning and maximizing diagnostics/rehabilitative interventions following acquired brain injury.
Current projects in the lab seek to identify the neural substrates in sensorimotor cortex by which our cognitive abilities can shape procedural motor control and how the cognitive-motor relationship is changed by acquired brain injury.