Kurt Thoroughman
- Phone
314-935-9094 - Office
Whitaker Hall, Room 245
Education
PhD, Johns Hopkins University, 1999BA, University of Chicago, 1993
Expertise
Works to identify patterns in neural activity that correspond to motor adaptation
Research
Kurt Thoroughman's research interests are in human learning and motor control. He is the director of the Laboratory of Neural Computation and Motor Behavior. Professor Thoroughman is also the Principal Investigator of an Integrative Graduate Education and Research Training grant from the National Science Foundation entitled "Cognitive, Computational and Systems Neuroscience."
Characterizing motor learning processes in healthy human adults will identify the specific signals used to plan movements and build motor predictions, which will in turn predict the neuronal activities required for motor learning. Comparing these predictions to physiological recordings from non-human primates will indicate the brain area that likely underlie these computations. Understanding motor behavior and its neural basis will make possible the measurement of these processes in disease, which will further the development of insightful clinical test in movement neurology, facilitate the early detection of symptoms, and make possible treatments of motor diseases at the earliest and least problematic stages.
Biography
Prior to joining Washington University in 2002, Professor Thoroughman completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Brandeis University.
Affiliations
