JHU BME

Laboratory for Computational
Motor Control

Research Overview

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Brain Imaging

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	Current lab members Alumni: Postdoctoral Fellows Alumni: PhD students Alumni: MS students Alumni: undergraduate students
	Current Lab Members
	Reza Shadmehr Laboratory director. Computational motor control and human motor learning. Scientific genealogy
	Sarah Hemminger shemming at bme dot jhu dot edu BME PhD program. Research focus on time course of consolidation in motor memory. Undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University.
	Minnan Xu mxu at bme dot jhu dot edu BME PhD program.  Online control of saccades, optimal control, and off-axis adaptation. Undergraduate degree from MIT.
	Jun Izawa jizawa at jhu dot edu Postdoctoral Fellow.  Adaptive processes in how the brain learns sensory consequences of motor commands. Optimal control processes and long-term learning in reach adaptation. PhD from Tokyo Institute of Technology.
	Vincent Ethier Vincent.ethier at gmail dot com MS BME program.  Optimal control, estimation, and timescales of memory in saccade adaptation. Vincent received his undergraduate training in Physics and Mathematics in the École Polytechnique of Montreal, and then at the École Polytechnique of Paris.
	Courtney Haswell ccarwil1 at jhu dot edu MS BME program.  Motor control in autism and other neurological disorders. Courtney received her undergraduate training in BME and Physics at Virginia Commonwealth University.
	Robert Nickl rnickl1 at jhmi dot edu BME PhD program.   The cost function in motor control. BSEE from Univ. Pittsburgh.
	Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry jj at jhu dot edu Postdoctoral Fellow. Neural basis of the timescales of motor memory using transcranial magnetic stimulation. PhD in Applied Sciences from Université catholique de Louvain, Belgium. BS in Applied Mathematics, UCL, Belgium.
	Alumni: PhD students
	Kurt Thoroughman PHD in BME completed on 12/1999. Thesis: “Human motor learning in stationary and non-stationary novel dynamical environments”. His thesis results were published in Journal of Neuroscience and Nature. After completion of his PhD, Kurt did a two year postdoc with Eve Marder at Brandies University. He subsequently became an Assistant Professor of BME at Washington University, St. Louis.
	Maurice Smith PhD in BME completed on 12/2000. Thesis: “Error feedback control in Huntington's Disease and Cerebellar Degeneration”. Maurice won the David Israel Macht Award in recognition of outstanding scientific work by a doctoral student in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. His results were published in Nature, Journal of Neurophysiology, PLoS Biology, and Trends in Cognitive Sciences. After completion of his PhD, Maurice finished his MD at Johns Hopkins, and then did a one year postdoc in our lab. He subsequently became an Assistant Professor in the Division of Engineering at Harvard University.
	EunJung Hwang Ph.D. in BME completed on 12/2004. Thesis: “Representation of proprioceptive information for generation of arm dynamics”. Here thesis results were published in PLoS Biology, Experimental Brain Research, and Neural Engineering. After completion of her PhD, EunJung became a postdoc in the laboratory of Richard Andersen at CalTech, Pasadena, CA.
	Haiyin Chen PhD in BME completed on 12/2006. Thesis: “Cerebellar and Cerebellar-Thalamic Contributions to Motor Adaptation”. Haiyin was the first student in the lab to do psychophysics as well as human neurophysiology via single cell recordings. Her thesis results were published in Cerebral Cortex and Journal of Neuroscience. She subsequently became a postdoc in laboratory of Katalin Gothard at the University of Arizona.
	Vincent Huang vhuang at bme dot jhu dot edu Ph.D. in BME completed on 12/2007. Thesis: “Enhancing motor learning through theoretical and experimental methods”. Vincent discovered that retention properties of memories are a reflection of the statistics of the environment. His results were published in Journal of Neurophysiology. He subsequently became a postdoc in laboratory of John Krakauer at Columbia University.
	Alumni: Postdoctoral Fellows
	Arash Hadipour-Niktarash Postdoctoral Fellow 2005-07.  Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and the role of motor cortex in adaptive control of reaching. Arash’s results were published in Journal of Neuroscience. Arash subsequently joined the neuroscience program at Emory university.
	Jörn Diedrichsen Postdoctoral Fellow 2003-2006. Jöern performed the first ever robot-assisted fMRI experiment on reach adaptation, and produced numerous innovations in the field of human brain imaging. His results were published in two papers in Journal of Neuroscience, and two papers in Neuroimage. Jörn subsequently became an Assistant Professor at the School of Psychology, University of Wales, UK.
	Sang June Oh Postdoctoral Fellow 2005-2006. PhD from Columbia University. Effect of sensory noise on adaptive control processes in reaching. Subsequently a postdoc at Yale University.
	Opher Donchin Postdoctoral Fellow 2000-2004. Opher won the BME Distinguished Postdoctoral Fellow award in 2000. Research on application of linear dynamical systems to system identification of human motor adaptation.  His results were published in Journal of Neurophysiology and Journal of Neuroscience. Subsequently Assistant Professor of BME at Ben Gurion University, Israel.
	Thrishantha Nanayakkara Postdoctoral fellow from 2002 to 2003. Worked on the ability of the brain to predict consequences of motor commands and published his results in Journal of Neurophysiology. Subsequently an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering, King's College, London.
	Goran Djordjevic Postdoctoral Fellow 2000-2002. Designed and built controllers for a 6-legged running robot.    His results were published in IEEE Transactions in Robotics. Subsequently an Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering at University of Nis.
	Joseph Francis Postdoctoral Fellow 2001-02.  Effect of time on error-dependent learning. Results published in Experimental Brain Research. Subsequently a postdoc in Laboratory of John Chapin, and then Assistant Professor at Dept. of Physiology, State University of New York.
	Ash Rao Postdoctoral Fellow 2000-01. Learning of cue-dependent force fields and the ability of the human brain to associate context to internal models of fields. Subsequently an Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy at Columbia University School of Medicine.
	Zahra Moussavi Postdoctoral Fellow 1/99-10/99. Geometry of generalization in learning of internal models. Published results in Journal of Neuroscience. Subsequently an Assistant Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Manitoba, Canada.
	Caterina Rosano Postdoctoral Fellow 1998-99. Research on electromyographic signs of motor dysfunction in genetically at risk but clinically asymptomatic Huntington's Disease individuals. Subsequently Assistant Professor of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
	Alumni: Masters Students
	Christine Lee Thesis completed on 6/2007: “Time-dependent contribution of primary motor cortex to visuomotor memory retention”. Christine’s work focused on using transcranial magnetic stimulation of the primary motor cortex to investigate the neural basis of motor learning. She subsequently joined the MD/PhD program at Stanford University.
	Tushar Rane Thesis completed on 5/2007: “Effects of changing noise in dynamics of reaching on changes in control of reaching: an optimal control perspective”. Tushar subsequently joined the BME PhD program at Johns Hopkins University.
	Siavash Vaziri MS BME Program. Thesis completed on 8/2005. “Saccadic remapping of reach targets”. Results were published in Journal of Neuroscience. Subsequently a PhD student in the BME program at Johns Hopkins University.
	Ali Ghazizadeh MS BME Program. Thesis completed on 8/2005: “State-space models of online acquisition in motor memory”. Results were published in papers in PLoS Biology and PLoS Biology. Subsequently a PhD student in the Neuroscience program at University of California, Berkeley.
	Stephanie Wainscott Thesis completed on 10/2003: “Internal models and contextual cues: encoding serial order and direction of movements”. Results were published in Journal of Neurophysiology. Subsequently employed at Directed Technologies, Washington DC.
	Maneesh Dewan Thesis completed on 10/2002. Designed and constructed an MRI compatible robotic arm.  Subsequently enrolled in the Computer Science Ph.D. program at Johns Hopkins.
	Greg Ariff Thesis completed on 9/2001: “The influence of a forward model of arm dynamics on eye behavior in saccadic tracking of manual reaching tasks”, published in Journal of Neuroscience. Won the Bozelli Fellowship. Subsequently joined Directed Technologies, Washington DC.
	Tie Wang Thesis completed on July 2000: "Control force changes due to adaptation of forward model in human motor control", Published results in Biological Cybernetics. Subsequently employed at Microstrategy Inc.
	Nikhil Bhushan Thesis completed on July 1998: "A Computational approach to Adaptive Human Motor Control". Paper ranked among the top 5% of submissions to NIPS 98 conference. Published in Biological Cybernetics and Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems. Subsequently employed at Medtronic Corp.
	Reza Nezafat MS BME student. Thesis completed on 10/2000: "Neural correlates of motor memory retention in the cerebellum". Published results in Experimental Brain Research. Subsequently enrolled in the BME PhD program at Johns Hopkins. Completed the PhD program in 2006. Subsequently an Assistant Professor at Harvard University School of Medicine.
	Kasra Akhavan-Toyserkani Thesis completed on July 1997: “A PET Study of Motor Memory”. Designed and built the robot's digital tachometer. Subsequently employed at Hughes Aircraft Corp.
	Alumni: Undergraduate Students
	Mehdi Rahman mrahman9 at jhu dot edu BS BME program.  Mehdi worked on a portable robot for testing of motor control and learning in patients with deep brain stimulation.
	Jonathan Weisz BS BME program. Robot control design for bimanual control. Undergraduate degree from Johns Hopkins University. Subsequently Jon joined the BME PhD program at University of Southern California.
	David Weiss Summer undergraduate student 2005. Research on muscle spindle models and the representation of limb state in the monkey motor cortex.
	Gaurav Singal Summer undergraduate student 2002. Research on “Cue dependent learning of dynamics”. Subsequently enrolled in the MIT/Harvard Health, Science and Technology (HST) PhD program.
	James Hartwell Undergraduate BME student 1999-2001. Jamie was extraordinarily helpful in a large of number of projects in the lab, but his greatest accomplishment was work on the mechanical design of the MRI compatible robot, completed on Jan. 2001. Subsequently enrolled as a medical student in the US Uniformed Services School of Medicine. Jamie is now a physician.
	Wilsaan Joiner Undergraduate summer research student. Adaptability of the motor feedback control system in individuals at risk for Huntington's Disease. Subsequently enrolled as a PhD student in the BME program at JHU. After graduation in 2006, Wilsaan became a postdoc in the laboratory of Robert Wurtz at the NIH.
	Joaquin Blaya Undergraduate summer research student. Control theory of motor learning as examined through human adaptation to non-minimum phase dynamical systems. Subsequently enrolled in the Mechanical Engineering PhD program at MIT.
	Bardia Behabadi Undergraduate research student 2002-03. Subsequently a graduate student at the BME department in University of Southern California.