Rachael Seidler
Rachael Seidler is a Professor in the Department of Applied Physiology and Kinesiology at the University of Florida; she is also an affiliate of the Norman Fixel Institute for Neurological Diseases. Her research focuses on the neural control of movement in health and disease, with a specific focus on motor learning. She uses a range of neuroimaging and neuromodulation techniques coupled with precise measures of movement and cognitive function to determine the neurocognitive underpinnings of motor control. Dr. Seidler has expertise working with a variety of populations including healthy young and older adults, patients with Parkinson’s disease, and NASA astronauts in both basic science and intervention experiments. Her work has been supported by the NIH, the NSF, NASA, the National Space Biomedical Research Institute (NSBRI), and a variety of private foundations. Active work in her lab includes investigation of human brain plasticity with spaceflight and experiments investigating which cognitive processes support skill acquisition and how they map onto underlying neural pathways.
Sessions in which Rachael Seidler participates
Wednesday 12 May, 2021
With aging, there are declines in sensorimotor functions such as fine motor control, gait and balance. Moreover, the largest age differences in brain structure are observed in the motor and somatosensory cortices. A key question of interest is why some individuals are more resilient than others to these functional declines. I will describe my findings showing that, in some cases, individual differences in sensorimotor system structure and function are associated with motor performance meas...
Sessions in which Rachael Seidler attends
Wednesday 12 May, 2021
Safe mobility is vital to the functional independence of older adults. Executive functions such as working memory updating and dividing attention play an increasingly important role in supporting mobility in old age. This talk describes recent studies that examine the influence of cognitive and sensory challenges to complex motor performance. Featured are recent cognitive training and exercise intervention studies designed to target executive functions to improve mobility and cognition in old...