Cognitive-Motor Learning Laboratory

Director: Aaron L. Wong

Overview

Movements are what enable us to interact with others and our environment; thus, the ability to move precisely and accurately is crucial throughout daily life. Moreover, as a society we recognize the value of the achievements of movement specialists such as athletes, dancers, and musicians. The goal of the CML Lab is to understand how interactions between the cognitive and motor systems allow us to acquire and maintain skilled actions and become movement experts. This includes identifying the processes that contribute both to the planning and the online control of actions.

Using motion tracking of the eye and arm in healthy individuals and in patients with neurological disorders, we aim to not only gain a better understanding of the motor system from a neurological and computational standpoint but also to identify new approaches to enhance rehabilitation efforts.

Programs of Research

  • The role of trajectory planning in movement imitation (with John Krakauer, MD,  Laurel Buxbaum, PsyD)
  • The contribution of verbal, visual, and proprioceptive instructions in planning praxis actions
  • Interactions between motivation, effort, and learning
  • Factors influencing the reaction time

People

Post-doctoral Fellows

Simon Thibault, PhD

Yue Du, PhD

Research Assistants

Luke Carter

Sky Yallof

Rand Williamson

Alumni

Mitchell Isaacs (RA)

Audrey Green (Intern), Holy Family University

Erica Barhorst-Cates, PhD (Postdoctoral Fellow)

Austin Wild (RA)

Resources

Github

Contact Us

If you would like to learn more about our research, you can reach us at CognitiveMotorLab@jefferson.edu.