Description:

Abstract

Sensorimotor performance of repetitive or sequential behaviors involves the precise timing of various segments of the body that have to be controlled in a systematic and meaningful way. Studying how the human brain puts together these movements involves a good understanding of sensory processes, cognitive skills and motor control. From studying the timing aspect of motor behavior, we can understand 1) how we organize sequential movements 2) how rhythms may be represented in the brain and 3) how sequences are learned and encoded. Additionally, I will present recent work from our lab demonstrating the role of the motor system in predicting and tracking timing information during visual and auditory perception, using combined EEG/TMS methodologies. Finally, I will discuss the differences between cerebellar and cortical mechanisms in sensorimotor timing.

Speaker info

Ramesh Balasubramaniam received his PhD (2000, Psychology/Behavioral Neuroscience) from University of Connecticut. Following this, he did post-doctoral research at the University of Montreal (2000-2002) and the University of Birmingham, UK (2002-2004) in movement neurophysiology. After serving as a faculty member at McMaster University in Canada, in 2012 he joined the Cognitive Science Department at the University of California in Merced, where he directs the Sensorimotor Neuroscience Laboratory. His research focuses on sensorimotor control and learning using behavioral experiments, multi-modal non-invasive imaging methods, electrophysiology, and brain stimulation (EEG, TMS) in order to understand how the brain processes timing information in perception and action. His work combines neurophysiological methods with dynamical systems and computational models.