Project

Now Dr. Megan Readman, ESRC PostDoctoral Scholar

I am interested in the effects Parkinson’s disease has on patients ability to use perceptual information to anticipate and update their perceptions of their action capabilities. Neurotypical populations readily update their perceived capabilities following physiological and/or morphological changes to the body. A vast body of research has implicated that this process primarily occurs in the basal ganglia, the same brain region thought to be disrupted in Parkinson’s disease. As a consequence one would reasonably predict that Parkinson’s patients ability to anticipate and update their perception of action capabilities would be atypical. I aim to decipher whether this is the case and the magnitude of the irregularities. I am also interested in how other neuropsychological disorders effect perceptual and action capabilities and the subsequent implications this may have on brain regions. I am funded by the ESRC as part of the North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership.