our lab studies the way that people learn new skills, and how processes which control the execution of motor skills, and enable the integration of sensory and motor information change as a function of learning and practice. a lot of our research is centred around the education of health professionals (and specifically, surigical trainees), but we also study coaches, high performance athletes, musicians and pilots. much of our work focuses on the motor and perceptual systems, and in particular how integration between these systems changes with practice. we are also interested in the neuroplastic changes that happen within systems as a result of experience.
current research projects include:
- evaluation tools for medical and surgical competence
- early predictors of surgical excellence
- optimising the acquisition of complex motor skills in new surgical trainees
- expertise and gender effects on visually-guided movements
- long term athlete development in fencing
- developing high performance athletes
- the influence of pitch height on music
- the influence of auditory cues on movement
- electrophysiological indices of sensory processing
- spatial hearing
we use a variety of behavioural, kinematic, and electrophysiological tools for our research including optical and magnetic movement capture, electroencephalography, and force transducers in addition to more traditional tools including pencils and drawing pins!
for more information about the work we do, please contact us.