Research

Our research focuses on the cognitive neuroscience of action, skilled movement, and cognition. Experiments involve healthy participants and patient populations, using a combination of behavioral and neuroimaging methods to develop models of human behavior and cognition.

Current Projects

• Computational principles and neural mechanisms underlying motor control and motor learning: A hallmark of human intelligence is the ability to coordinate complex movements with ease. Using a combination of behavioral experiments in healthy participants and neurological patients, computational modeling, neuroimaging, and brain stimulation techniques, we investigate how humans adapt their movements in an ever-changing environment and how they acquire new motor skills from scratch. In particular, we are interested in how multiple learning systems, including decision-making processes, implicit sensorimotor recalibration, and reinforcement learning, interact and cooperate to support flexible motor learning.
• The Role of the Cerebellum in Language Processing: Our lab investigates the role of the cerebellum in language, with a focus on its contribution to prediction and real-time language processing. One line of research examines how individuals with cerebellar degeneration generate and revise semantic predictions during comprehension. This work combines neuropsychological approaches with behavioral experiments and EEG recordings to better understand the cerebellum’s broader role in cognition beyond motor control.
• The role of the cerebellum in reward learning: Our lab investigates how the cerebellum supports reward learning and decision making. Although the cerebellum is best known for controlling movement, neurophysiological studies show that it also signals reward prediction errors. We take a neuropsychological approach by comparing healthy individuals with patients who have cerebellar ataxia. In one line of work, we use reinforcement learning tasks that separate action selection from action execution and find that cerebellar damage mainly affects learning from movement outcomes, rather than decision making in general. This work advances our understanding of how the cerebellum contributes to cognition.