Some kinds of hand movements can be performed extremely quickly, almost without thought, and often when the target of our movement suddenly and unexpectedly changes - these are the kinds of movements I study. A second strand of my research examines how the brain processes information coming from the hands, in particular simple vibrations on the fingertips. By stimulating the brain and peripheral nerves with an electromagnet, we can work out exactly where and when the brain is processing the vibrations.

Past Research

My PhD examined how the brain processes lights and touches felt on or near the hands. The brain seems to treat objects close to the body (say, within 30cm of your skin) quite differently to objects that are further away. This idea of 'personal space' leads to many predictions about how the brain might process visual and tactile stimuli on and near the skin. My PhD used behavioural and neuroimaging methods to test these predictions.

During goal directed movements such as reaching out to pick up a glass of water, sensory signals must be transformed into appropriate motor commands. For visually guided movements, this involves translating visual information, signalling the spatial position of the target, into a motor plan which specifies the sequence of postural changes required to bring the hand to the target. An issue of fundamental importance is therefore to understand how visual information, specifying position, shape and surface texture of an object, is combined with somatosensory information signalling the current state of the body (e.g. limb position), and then used to generate the appropriate motor command signals.

My colleagues and I investigate the nature of the sensorimotor transformations which underlie goal-directed action in three ways. Firstly, we examine how unconstrained reaching movements are planned and executed by healthy adults. A key focus of these investigations is frequently to dissociate visual and somatosensory cues during the planning and execution of movement. Secondly, we examine how movement planning and control mechanisms are altered by brain damage or brain disease. Finally, we try to localise the brain mechanisms which underlie our ability to plan and control human action using a variety of non-invasive brain imaging techniques such as event-related electroencephalography, transcranial magnetic stimulation and functional magnetic resonance imaging.

The main research themes areas are: hemispheric lateralisation of cognitive functions and human movement control (with emphasis on coordination tasks) under normal and disordered conditions. Use is made of behavioural as well as functional imaging techniques in order to better understand brain-behaviour relationships and mechanisms of neuroplasticity.