Expertise:
Kinematic
analysis of human movements, signal processing, electrophysiological
techniques, nonlinear modeling, psychophysical techniques,
and modeling of biological motions
For the past 25 years, my research has focused on the inter-relations
among perception, action and cognition in human infants and
adults. In contrast to traditional views suggesting that
di fferent sensory inputs converge into a unitary representation
that precedes both thought and action, we follow a theoretical
framework advanced by Melvyn Goodale and David Milner, and
also by Marc Jeannerod, who propose that the visual system
is divided into two functionally dissociable pathways. The
ventral pathway or semantic system is concerned primarily
with the perception and recognition of objects and events,
while the dorsal pathway or pragmatic system is concerned
primarily with the perceptual control and guidance of actions.
One of the primary goals of our lab is to explore how this
functional dissociation between visual control and recognition
is useful for understanding early brain and behavioral development.
Some of these skills and processes are present at birth or
soon thereafter, but most develop as a function of the dynamic
interplay among neuromaturation, experience and learning.
Special emphasis is placed on the observation and execution
of actions. Our research is concerned with identifying the
mechanisms necessary for prospective control and how this
control develops as the individual gains more experience
with selecting and controlling the relevant response. Although
predictive control of actions assumes some form of motor
representation, the nature of this representation changes
with development. This representation is initially implicit
or procedural, elicited by context, and requires some explicit
form of stimulation. By contrast, the motor representations
available to adults are not only controlled by direct and
persistent input-output connections, but also mediated by
intrinsic instructions not dependent on explicit information.
Consistent with a division of labor for the two functions
of vision, there are two different mechanisms available for
perceiving and understanding actions. One mechanism involves
the visual analysis of the different elements that form an
action. The second mechanism involves the direct mapping
of the observed action onto our motor representation of that
same action. An action is understood when its observation
causes the motor system of the observer to resonate or simulate
the same action. In order to better understand some of the
structural as well as functional differences between the
direct mapping system and the visual analysis system we investigate
behavioral and brain functioning during imitation, response
priming, and prediction of action effects involving both
biological and non-biological agents.
My laboratory is well prepared to address these problems
for a number of reasons including: (1) significant research
experience studying the development of perception and action
coupling (e.g., visual control of posture, reaching, locomotion,
etc.), as well as the early representation of objects and
their properties; (2) familiarity and experience with a multidisciplinary
set of research methods and techniques, such as biomechanics,
signal processing, psychophysics, electrophysiology, and
chronometric approaches; (3) experience with linear and nonlinear
modeling approaches to complex sets of data; and (4) a large
network of collaborators who support and complement the primary
mission of my laboratory.
Specific research projects:
-- Imitation, mirror neurons, and response
priming
-- Predictive control in experts and novices
-- Authorship effects in the prediction of goal-directed
actions
-- Hierarchical parsing of ongoing physical
and biological events
-- Multimodal communication in humans
and machines
-- Development of predictive tracking
of people and artifacts
-- Infants’ perception of object
identity
-- Change blindness involving faces and
objects
Laboratory personnel:
Matthew Longo
Graduate student
mlongo@uchicago.edu
Kalina Michalska
Graduate student
anilak_99@yahoo.com |
