When you're sitting at your cluttered desk and want to reach for a pen amidst a host of other choices from paper clips to your coffee cup, how does the brain direct your hand to reach for and grasp the pen when there are so many other choices? That's the question Craig Chapman, a professor of psychology with research interests in behavioural neuroscience, is probing. Chapman, currently a Killam postdoctoral fellow at the University of British Columbia, will join the faculty to complement the cohort of scholars here focusing on motor learning and motor control.
In describing his research, he says, "Typically, when we study reaching and grasping we place a single object in front of people and then measure how they reach out and grab it. That's important for characterizing those simple kinds of movements but when we have a cluttered environment - the real world environment in which we have to perform these actions, it's a lot more complicated. In general, the direction of my research is to investigate what are the implications and the effects of having to perform reaching and grasping movements in these complex environments."
Understanding how we negotiate the landscape of target and non-target objects (the things we want to reach for and pick up and those we don't) in our busy environments, has implications for clinical applications, says Chapman.
"If we look at people who have motor deficits as a result of neurological damage or another disorder, (we find) they can be really good at compensating when performing simple tasks. So even though they report to us that they have difficulty in daily life, when we have them do these tasks they actually do a pretty good job," Chapman explains.
"One reason might be because by compensating they can overcome any deficits they have. When we scale up the complexity of the task, we might increase the chance that we see some of the deficits emerging. We might get a better quantification of these disorders. This is one of the more direct applications that I can see my work taking."
He sees possibilities for research collaborations across the faculty in areas such as neuroscience, adapted physical activity, and behavioural medicine and across campus with Rehabilitation Medicine, Computer Science and Psychology. Chapman says he's excited by the work done by the Glenrose Rehabilitation Hospital. "I'd like to get involved in that type of environment too - where they are at the forefront of developing new rehabilitation regimes (for injured people), and designing and validating new pieces of equipment."The kinds of projects he sees himself being involved with are like the one being conducted by Dr. Todd Handy, one of his collaborators at UBC. This project looks at falling behaviour in elderly people to determine individuals' susceptibility to experience falls - and what other factors might predict the likelihood of falling. "I am interested in working with diverse populations like this, and to explore if measuring actions in complex environments might help predict other conditions" he says.
For Chapman, the University of Alberta with its reputation as a research-intensive university was appealing - as was the choice of faculty. "I wanted to come to the University of Alberta because of its reputation as a research-intensive university. I love to teach, but really wanted that to be at a university with a strong research focus.
"The Physical Education and Recreation faculty makes sense for me in that I study human movement," he adds, "And this faculty has a great reputation as being one of the premier faculties of its kind in North America."
Making the decision to come to Alberta was the right one - and not just for Chapman. "Family life is extremely important to me. My wife is a physician and we have a new baby daughter. I wanted to be sure it was going to work for my family too."
"Craig was, and this can be confirmed by the committee, the unanimous choice from a very strong pool of applicants, says Dean Kerry Mummery. "He demonstrated excellent teaching and research promise and will definitely be a valuable addition to the Faculty. We are excited to be able to attract him to Edmonton and the University of Alberta"
Chapman will join the faculty in January 2013.