Jonathan Tsay: cerebellar contributions to action and cognition

Understanding how we acquire, adapt, and retain motor skills is one of the principal goals of cognitive neuroscience, and remains a defining challenge for robotics and clinical rehabilitation. While it is well established that sensorimotor learning entails multiple implicit and explicit processes, the underlying computations and neural substrates governing these processes remain poorly understood. Drawing on my research ranging from fine-grain sensorimotor psychophysics to large-scale crowdsourced datasets (test yourself here: multiclamp-c2.web.app), I will highlight core neuropsychological constraints and novel computational insights into motor learning. This body of work offers a fresh perspective regarding the cerebellum’s role in cognition and action and has motivated a new hypothesis concerning how the cerebellum coordinates both our physical and mental kinematics.

Jonathan Tsay has taken a winding, interdisciplinary path, beginning as a mathematics major at Northwestern University. He went on to become a licensed physical therapist, earning his Doctor of Physical Therapy from Northwestern University School of Medicine, before getting hooked on the science of motor learning and pursuing a Ph.D. in Psychology at University of California, Berkeley, where he was mentored by Rich Ivry. He then completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Cambridge before joining Carnegie Mellon University. He is now an Assistant Professor of Psychology at CMU. His work centers on understanding how humans acquire, adapt, and retain motor skills—from everyday actions like making the perfect cup of coffee to more complex skills such as executing a precise karate kick. He studies this by carefully observing human behavior, developing mathematical models, and conducting research with individuals with neurological disorders.

Видео Jonathan Tsay: cerebellar contributions to action and cognition канала Shadmehr Lab