The Center for the Collaborative Study of Cognition and Movement investigates the role of the basal ganglia in action and cognition. Specifically, we look at how movement disorders, such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, relate to changes in action, cognitive control, risk-taking, and learning from feedback. In addition, the lab tries to define how treatments for basal ganglia disorders, like medication or deep brain stimulation, further modulate these cognitive functions, both behaviorally and physiologically. Taken together, our goals are to shed light on how changes in the basal ganglia result in cognitive and behavioral changes and what might be the mechanism behind this.
We hope that our work will help shed light on the mechanisms and the effects of basal ganglia disorders, as well as contribute to advances in treatment and management of these disorders.