Description:

Abstract:

Studies of high-level motor skill often overlook the vital question of how object-related actions (such as those for tool use) are represented and selected.  A common but poorly-understood disorder called limb apraxia has contributed substantially to our understanding in this domain.  The hallmark of apraxia after left hemisphere stroke is the production of spatio-temporal errors in tool use and pantomime tasks as well as difficulty imitating and recognizing actions. Research in our laboratory has revealed three major patterns of apraxia attributable to deficits in action knowledge, spatiotemporal action production, or action selection.  Lesion symptom mapping analyses suggest that these subtypes are related to damage to (and reduced functional connectivity of) specific nodes in a distributed left hemisphere network. These data have contributed to a computationally-inspired understanding of the mechanisms underlying complex skilled action planning and control.

Biography:

Laurel J. Buxbaum, Psy.D., is Associate Director of the Moss Rehabilitation Research Institute (MRRI) in Elkins Park, PA, USA, Director of MRRI’s Cognition and Action Laboratory, and Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia.  She has authored more than 90 peer-reviewed articles and chapters, and has served as Associate Editor of the journals Cognition, Cortex, and Journal of Neuropsychology.  Her laboratory focuses on understanding how complex skilled action is represented in the brain, how action representations influence manipulable object knowledge, relationships between action and language processing, spatial neglect, and phantom limb phenomena in persons with amputation.  She has received grant funding from the National Institute of Health, National Institute of Disability and Rehabilitation Research, and the James S. McDonnell Foundation.  Dr. Buxbaum is the recipient of the International Neuropsychological Society’s Arthur Benton Mid-Career Award, the Widener University Graduate Award for Excellence in Professional Psychology, and the American Society of Neurorehabilitation’s Viste Award.  Her work spans a translational “pipeline” from basic cognitive neuroscience to neurorehabilitation.