Lab personnel
Principal Investigator
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Virginia Penhune
Ph.D. in Psychology, McGill University
Dr. Penhune received her BA degree in Philosophy from Wellesley College in 1981. Upon realizing that the brain could be more fruitfully studied from the laboratory than from an armchair, she completed a PhD in Psychology at the Montreal Neurological Institute of McGill University under the supervision of Dr. Michael Petrides. Her doctoral research examined the neural basis of auditory rhythm perception and production. She then pursued a post-doctoral fellowship at Laval University with Dr. Julien Doyon focused on the neural basis of motor skill learning. Dr. Penhune joined the Department of Psychology at Concordia University in 2000, and is also an adjunct member of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University. During her career at Concordia Dr. Penhune’s research has been funded by grants from CIHR, NSERC and FRSQ. In addition, she held the FRSQ Chercheur Boursier Junior I and II career awards from 2004-2009. She is a founding member of the International Laboratory for Brain Music and Sound (BRAMS), as well as a member of the Centre for Research in Human Development (CRDH) and the Centre for Research in Behavioral Neurobiology (CSBN).
Graduate Students
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Tal Savion-Lemieux
Ph.D. Candidate
In 1999, I completed my B.A. in Psychology at McGill University. Before pursuing a graduate degree, I worked for two years as a research coordinator in Drs. Gillian O’Driscoll and Virginia Douglas’ labs at McGill University. I was involved in several collaborative neuropsychological projects looking at visual-motor and skeleto-motor functions in different clinical populations including children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and reading disabilities, as well as relatives of individuals with schizophrenia. My active involvement on these research projects sparked my interest in both research and clinical work.
In 2001, I started my graduate degree at Concordia University in Clinical Psychology. I was one of Dr. Penhune’s first graduate students and have been actively implicated in many fascinating projects investigating the effect of different factors (e.g., amount and distribution of practice, expertise, development) on motor skill learning and consolidation (i.e. short-term retention).
One of my first studies at the lab looked at the effect of practice and delay on motor skill learning and retention. Surprisingly, we found that even minimal amounts of practice, distributed over several days, were sufficient to induce long-term memory of a visual motor sequence task. Following this study, we are currently investigating the influence of practice pattern on learning, consolidation, and transfer of visual-motor multi-finger sequences.
A relatively new line of research I am very excited about is an examination of developmental contributions to motor skill learning. In a recent study, we demonstrated that practicing adult musicians who began their training before age seven showed significantly better performance on a motor skill learning task than those who began their training after age seven. We hypothesized that there may be a “sensitive” period, in childhood, for the optimal learning of motor skills, similar to that observed for learning a language. Based on this set of findings, we are currently studying behavioural changes in learning and performance across normal development in children between the ages of 6 and 10 years. To our knowledge, this is the first study of its kind!
My clinical interests lie in the field of pediatric psychology. This year, I am working at the Back-on-Track Preschool Clinic in the Psychology Department of the Montreal Children’s Hospital (MCH), where I am gaining valuable experience in the assessment and treatment of preschoolers presenting with behavioural difficulties. Previously, I worked at: 1) the Adolescent Day Hospital of the MCH; 2) the Child Psychiatry Outpatient Department at the Jewish General Hospital (JGH); and 3) the Applied Psychology Centre (APC), Concordia’s on-site clinic. While I am currently applying for a pre-doctoral internship position in pediatric psychology, I strive to continue being involved in new and exciting research projects on motor learning.
Email: t_savion@alcor.concordia.ca
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Christopher Steele
Ph.D. Candidate
Hello! I completed my undergraduate degree in Biological Science at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia. During my B.Sc. I attended the University of East Anglia in Norwich (UK) for an exchange year – focusing my work on final year papers in genetic engineering and artificial intelligence. My degree included a significant number of computing theory and application courses, but a minor was not in the cards. Before pursuing a graduate degree, I spent some time teaching English in Japan, conducting Social Sciences research in Vancouver, and studying in New Zealand. I completed a one-year Diploma for Graduates in Psychological Science at the University of Otago (NZ) to bridge my biology background to Experimental Psychology. In general, I am interested in concepts of learning, memory, categorisation, and knowledge representation; as well as any complementary application of these concepts to the domains of Psychology and Computer Science. My core research interests are in the identification of the process of transition from novice to expert, and the corresponding behavioural and neural differences between these groups. I use MRI and a number of different analysis techniques to identify the functional and structural bases of motor sequence learning. My first study followed participants over five days of learning to determine the basic network involved and how that network changes, as well as identifying how the functional interactions between the primary motor cortex and the cerebellum change across learning. We were also able to identify different components of sequence skill that are optimised over different time courses and involve different functional networks. I am also interested in identifying the structural correlates of motor sequence learning and performance, and have conducted a cross-sectional MRI study utilising diffusion and standard T1 structural images. My current work expands upon previous work and combines functional and structural imaging with long-term sequence learning to determine how multiple components (such as speed, accuracy, and velocity) are learned, optimised, and represented within the brain.
Email: c_steele@alcor.concordia.ca
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Kevin Trewartha
Ph.D. Candidate
In 2004 I completed my BA in Psychology at The University of Western Ontario. My honours thesis focused on the rat as a behavioural model of spatial memory deficits in aging, under the direction of Dr. William A. Roberts. Following my thesis work I continued my tenure in Dr. Roberts' lab as an NSERC undergraduate research fellow. Before beginning graduate school I worked as a research assistant in Dr. Stefan Köhler's Memory lab, and Dr. Paul Gribble's Motor Control lab. In 2007 I completed my MA in Psychology at Concordia University, Montreal with Dr. Karen Li, and Dr. Virginia Penhune, where I am currently completing my PhD work (described below).
It is natural for us to make errors in our actions, from spilling the contents of our drink, to tripping on the stairs. Luckily, we have evolved mechanisms that allow us to detect those errors and learn from them. We can also adapt to situations that conflict with our expectations, even when we haven't made an error. Such adaptation occurs because the cognitive processes involved in these situations influence the control of our movements. Recently, it has been suggested that getting older is associated with increased interdependence between sensory, cognitive and motor processes. My research uses both 3-D motion capture, and neurophysiological (event-related potential: ERP) techniques to tease apart the relationship between cognitive demands, and the control of movement during responses to a given task. My specific interest is in studying the behavioural, and neural instantiations of the age-related changes in that relationship. My research has revealed that younger adults are more flexible to adapt movements in response to cognitive conflict than older adults. My current research is concerned with exploring the neural correlates of such reduced flexibility in motor control in later adulthood. In the broader context, my interests are in specifying the behavioural and neural changes that lead to increased interdependence between cognitive and motor processes in aging with the goal of understanding the complex system involved in motor/cognitive control.
Email: k_trewa@alcor.concordia.ca
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Larry Baer
Ph.D. Candidate
Imagine watching a live musical performance. You may find yourself tapping your foot along with the beat while the musicians on stage are synchronizing with each other after hours of rehearsal and years of training. How is the brain able to synchronize movement with a sequence of external stimuli? For my doctoral thesis, I am using motion capture technology to investigate the relationship between timing and movement, focusing on expert populations such as musicians.
Aside from this primary area of research, I am also involved in the Longitudinal Retirement Project undertaken by Concordia's Centre for Research in Human Development, examining factors that may affect cognitive decline post-retirement. As part of my clinical training, I am currently working at the Douglas Hospital in the P.E.P.P. clinic for first-episode psychosis, doing neuropsychological assessment and cognitive behavioural therapy.
I am co-supervised by Karen Li, PhD., director of the Adult Development Lab and Virginia Penhune, Ph.D., director of the Laboratory for Motor Learning and Neural Plasticity.
Email: lh_baer@alcor.concordia.ca
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Avrum Hollinger
Ph.D. Candidate, Music Technology, Schulich School of Music, McGill University
Avrum is an electrical engineer pursuing his combined interests in music and electronics. His main research endeavour is the design of MRI-compatible musical interfaces that are ferromagnetic-free and make use of fibre optic sensors. He is concentrating on controllers that emulate the feel and sound of acoustic instruments, for use within the brain scanner during musical neuroimaging studies, while also exploring new instruments, interfaces, and sounds.
Email: avrum@music.mcgill.ca
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Anne Bailey
Ph.D. Student
I am currently in my first year of my Ph.D. degree in the clinical psychology program at Concordia. My research interests involve investigating the idea of a sensitive period during development for sensorimotor abilities in musicians. My research typically involves comparing adult musicians who began training before the age of 7 and those who began later during childhood on a battery of tasks (rhythm synchronization, melody discrimination, bimanual coordination, visuomotor synchronization and different cognitive variables). In addition, a non-musician group has been added for comparison. Group differences and the relationship between task performance and brain structure is a large focus of my Ph.D. thesis work.
Email: j.anne.bailey@gmail.com
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Yana Korotkevich
M.A. Candidate
I am currently a first-year Master’s student in the clinical psychology program. I obtained my B.A. in Psychology at Concordia University. Under the supervision of Dr. Virginia Penhune, I completed an honours thesis project investigating the effects of repetition and interference on motor skill learning. My research interests involve understanding the nature of multi-tasking. In particular, I am interested to investigate age differences at people’s ability to perform two things at the same time. The goal of my current study is to examine age differences between younger and older adults in a simultaneous performance of cognitive and fine motor tasks. In this study I use a 3-D motion capture system in order to measure fine motor performance and kinematic changes that are involved in acquisition of new motor skills.
Email: koroyana@hotmail.com
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Chiara Giacosa
Ph.D. Candidate
I completed my BSc in Physics, and then obtained my Master's degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele in Milan, Italy. My MA research was focused on examining changes in brain structure in Obsessive Compulsive Disorder using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). Currently, I am starting my first year as a Ph.D. candidate in Psychology at Concordia University. My research project will use both behavioral and structural brain imaging measures to study auditory local/global processing, and auditory-motor integration in Autistic Spectrum Disorder. This work will be conducted in collaboration with Dr. Krista Hyde at the Montreal Children's Hospital and McGill University.
Email: chiagiarasa@gmail.com
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Melanie Segado
M.Sc. Candidate, McGill University
Following completion of my undergraduate degree in Neuroscience at McGill University this spring (2011), I decided to pursue a Master's degree in Neuroscience at McGill, where I will work jointly with Dr. Robert Zatorre and Dr. Penhune. For my undergraduate thesis, I focused on how the brain processes language – specifically, the role that the cerebellum plays in primary auditory processing. For my master's project, I intend to focus on how the brain changes as an individual learns to play a string instrument. In order to do this, I will use an MRI compatible cello developed by Avrum Hollinger in the laboratory of Dr. Marcelo Wanderly in the Faculty of Music at McGill.
Email: melanie.segado@gmail.com
Research Assistant/Coordinator
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Dilini Sumanapala
Before moving to Canada in 2007, I attended high school in Dubai (United Arab Emirates) where I focused on computer science, art and design, English literature, biology and business studies. Although my original plan was to pursue an undergraduate degree in graphic design, I decided to change course and explore a new interest in psychology/neuroscience. In June 2011, I graduated from Concordia University with a B.A. Honours degree in Psychology. I completed my thesis, entitled 'Motor Learning: Performance and Kinematics', under the supervision of Dr. Virginia Penhune and Christopher Steele. For this project, I studied performance gains in a group of non-musicians across two consecutive days of practice on a sequential key-press task (see Multiple Finger Sequence Task). As part of my study, I investigated distinct behavioural components of motor performance, such as accuracy and synchronization, and how these improved with practice. In accordance with previous literature (see Christopher Steele), my data showed evidence for differential patterns of improvement across these separate components, suggesting that they may be optimized by distinct cognitive and neural processes. Following graduation, I have continued working on newer pilots of this project and began work in July 2011 as the Penhune Lab research assistant.
Email: dilini.sumanapala@gmail.com
