We investigate the interface between cognitive representations of objects, tasks, and action planning processes using behavioral testing with healthy and brain-damaged participants, voxel-based lesion analyses (VLSM), Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS; in collaboration with Branch Coslett and Steve Jax), eyetracking (in collaboration with Dan Mirman), and Virtual Reality. This work enables us to understand how conceptual representations may be “embodied”, and the aspects of object representations that may be disrupted after stroke to frontal, temporal, or parietal brain regions. In addition, we study the role of spatial and body representations in the control of attention and action.

Current projects
   - Assessment and treatment of hemispatial neglect (development of the Virtual Reality Lateralized Attention Test - Video / YouTube)
   - The role of context in the pattern of action-related interference from distractor objects (with Chia-Lin Lee)
   - Processing of means and outcomes in the right and left hemisphere (with Solene Kalenine)
   - Disrupting representations of object use with TMS (with Steve Jax)
   - Understanding the hierarchical organization of action using eyetracking (with Solene Kalenine and Dan Mirman)

Shared tools
     Naturalistic Action Test

People

    Director: Laurel Buxbaum, PsyD

    Post-docs
        Christine Watson

    Research Assistants
        Allison Shapiro
        Alexis Kington
        Rachel German

Collaborators
    Branch Coslett (U. Penn)
    Myrna Schwartz and the Language and Aphasia Laboratory
    Dan Mirman and the Language and Cognitive Dynamics Laboratory
    Scott Grafton (U.C. Santa Barbara)
    Matt Botvinick (Princeton)
    Scott Frey  (U. Oregon)
    Steve Jax and the Perceptual-Motor Control Laboratory
    Katherine Kuchenbecker (U. Penn)
    Anna Borghi (Rome)

Alumni
    Konstantinos Tsagkaridis
    Chia-lin Lee, Assistant Professor, Linguistics Department at National Taiwan University
    Solène Kalénine, Post-doctoral Researcher, Laboratoire URECA, Université Charles-de-Gaulle Lille III, France
    Laura Barde, Postdoctoral Fellow Department of Pediatrics Stanford University School of Medicine
    Amanda Dawson, Select Medical Corp.
    Tania Giovannetti, Associate Professor of Psychology, Temple University
    Steve Jax
    Richard Palluel-Germain, Psychology and Neurocognition Laboratory, Universite’ Pierre Mendes
    Antonella Pavese, Senior User Experience Researcher, Google, Inc.