Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

*I am requesting funding to upgrade my existing KINARM EndPoint robot with the best-in-class gaze tracker (Eyelink 1000+, SR Research, Ottawa) from BKIN (Kingston, Ontario). This gaze tracker is the first of its kind and is the only commercially-available tracker compatible with my NSERC RTI funded (2014) robot. This is because of the need to track solely in the horizontal plane. This upgrade will enable gaze tracking during motor learning using the arms and facilitate a new line of research that considers visuomotor brain plasticity. *My current NSERC grant is focused on understanding how white matter networks change with experience (learning). The gaze tracker requested here will enable robust consideration of how the visual and motor systems interact during learning. Specifically, it will enable a new line of research in my lab that tests ideas surrounding visual system neuroplasticity and extends past discoveries. Failure to obtain the requested equipment will stall our understanding of how vision and arm movement interact to support motor learning.*In past NSERC funded research my group discovered that learning a novel visuomotor task stimulated significant increases in the thickness of myelin in the intraparietal sulcus. This was the first report of plasticity in myelin associated with motor learning in the human brain. In this research, significant increases in myelin thickness in the intraparietal sulcus was stimulated by learning a novel visuomotor task. At this time my group can only map the contribution of learned arm movements to myelin plasticity. Yet, the intraparietal sulcus is known to be important for the integration of vision into movement. We do not understand whether myelin plasticity was associated with the learning of arm movements, eye movements or both. Acquisition of a gaze tracking system integrated with my KINARM EndPoint robot will allow my group to test this question. *At this time there are no other bimanual KINARM EndPoint robots at UBC. There are other gaze tracking systems but because of the need to track gaze in the horizontal plane none can be integrated with my robotic device. Acquisition of a gaze tracker will position my research group at the leading edge of the study of neuroplastic changes associated with human motor learning. It will also enable the expansion of my proposed Discovery grant research. My KINARM EndPoint robot is already well utilized, adding gaze tracking will cause it to be in use >90% of the time. Further, the line of research facilitated by this equipment will significantly advance the training of HQP, including women; currently 10 of 13 HQP my research group are women. In sum, the research contributions enabled by the acquisition of this equipment will move the entire field forward by specifying the relationship(s) between eye and arm movement driven structural plasticity during human motor learning.