Virginia Penhune

The work in our laboratory is focused on understanding the plastic changes that occur in the human brain during motor learning and performance.  We explore the way children and adults learn motor skills and how musical training affects the ability to learn.  The lab also studies changes in motor skills that occur as adults age.  The techniques used include behavioral studies as well as neuroimaging studies of brain structure and function (functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI and positron emission tomography or PET).  The lab also uses 3D motion capture to study changes in movement kinematics during learning.  An exciting new line of research examines behavioral and neuronal changes during learning of abstract rules.

Thursday Report article: Motor performance across the lifespan.

Selected Publications

• Watanabe D, Penhune VB and Savion-Lemieux, T (2005).  Effect of the start of musical training on the acquisition and retention of a temporal motor sequence task.  Cognitive Neuroscience Annual Meeting.  New York, New York.
• Longo DosSantos C and Penhune VB (2005).  Learning of secondary rules in a biconditional grammar.  Cognitive Neuroscience Annual Meeting.  NYC, New York.
• Penhune, VB and Doyon, J (2005).  Cerebellum and M1 interaction during early learning of timed motor sequences.  NeuroImage, 26:  801-812.
• Savion-Lemieux T and Penhune VB (2005).  The effects of practice and delay on motor skill learning and retention.   Experimental Brain Research. 161: 423-431.
• Penhune, VB & Doyon J (2002).   Dynamic cortical and subcortical networks in learning and delayed recall of timed motor sequences.   J Neuroscience, 22 (4):   1397-1406