Research Project Doctoral Candidate 11

Overcoming atypical variability: effects of manipulation of sensorimotor variability to enhance motor learning in children and adults with motor disorders

 

Fellow

Ilaria Bufacchi

 

Host Institution

King's College London, Department of Population Health Sciences

 

Supervisors

Dr. Marco Davare

Dr. Crina Grosan

Dr. Verity McClelland

 

Project description

The aim of the project is to characterise atypical sensorimotor variability in children and adults with motor disorders and to investigate methods to manipulate and overcome this atypical variability. To this end, the objectives of the DC project are: (1) to investigate Event-Related changes in spectral EEG activity during active single hand task in children with dystonia , (2) to utilise non-invasive neurophysiological techniques to map typical and atypical trial to trial variability during task training, and (3) to implement ML-based system for pattern recognition

The expected results include improved motor learning performance of grasping tasks for children with dystonia. The overall aim of the project is to tackle the sensorimotor variability

 

Planned Secondments

Tel Aviv University

Jönköping University

 

Project updates

May 2026

More than 6 months from the beginning of the project, DC11 has been helping in data collection for 2 different studies involving: i) Event-Related changes in spectral EEG activity during active single hand task in children with motor disorders (fig. 1), ii) non-invasive neurophysiological techniques to map typical and atypical trial to trial variability during task execution (fig. 2). After becoming familiar with the data acquisition, DC11 is now working on the scoping review to identify gaps in literature involving the use of AI in motor learning experiments.