Jarrod Blinch, Ph.D

Researcher: Jarrod Blinch, Ph.D.

Title:  Assistant Professor in Motor Behavior

Laboratory: Room 101, Motor Behavior Laboratory 

 

 

 

Personal Statement

The motor behavior lab studies human movement from cognitive psychology and neuroscience perspectives. Motor behavior research, broadly, seeks to understand how the neuromuscular system accomplishes coordinated movements. The lab is an independent, research-only lab that is currently composed of principal investigator Dr. Blinch and students in Kinesiology. We are currently doing research in four interrelated areas of motor behavior; the broad research questions are listed below.

• How can difficult movements be made easy by changing how we think about the task?
• How is a task represented in the mind when it is done by one person versus shared by two people?
• How does one decided which movement to make when there are multiple choices?
• Do eye movements differ with an internal or external focus of attention?

Application of Expertise to Health Disparity Research

Understand how we make movements could help treat people with movement disorders. Examples of the applications of motor control to movement disorders include stroke, autism spectrum disorder, and Parkinson's disease.

Laboratory Equipment

The principle equipment in the motor behavior lab is a motion capture system that allows us to precisely track the intricate movements of the hands and arms. It is a research-grade version of the technology used to capture the movements of actors for film or video games, like Gollum in Lord of the Rings.