Adaptation to Novel Sensory-Motor Environment during Visually-Guided Reaching

The overall purpose of this project is to understand how the brain controls reaching movement under various sensorimotor environments.

The specific objectives are:

1. To investigate how individuals adapt to novel environments in which their sensory-motor relationship is altered by the presence of visual rotations or virtual force fields.
2. To investigate how sensorimotor adaptation is generalized across different conditions (e.g., transfer of motor learning from one arm to the other).
3. To understand the effect of handedness on sensorimotor adaptation and its transfer across the arms.

Tasks and Responsibilities

1. Students will recruit subjects.
2. Students will help, and learn how, to collect movement data using 2-D movement data acquisition systems.
3. Students will be exposed to data processing and analysis procedures.
4. Students will learn to search and review relevant literature.
5. Students involved in a project for an extended time period may be encouraged to present research findings at UWM/national conferences, and invited to be an author on a research manuscript.