Roxana Burciu
University of Delaware, DE·Neuroscience
Many everyday tasks need both hands working together while the mind is busy elsewhere, such as buttoning a shirt during a conversation. People with Parkinson's disease (PD), the fastest-growing neurological disorder worldwide, have worse movement problems when they must do two things at once ('dual-tasking').
- Fields
Neuroscience
Biomedical Engineering
Medicine & Clinical Research
- Topics
Parkinson's disease
bimanual coordination
dual-task interference
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2027
What they work on
- Test whether people with Parkinson's disease show altered brain activity during isometric two-handed force tasks compared with healthy older adults, using functional MRI.
- Determine whether adding a selective attention task worsens bimanual force control and brain activity disruptions in PD, measuring cortical activity with fNIRS in more natural settings.
- Combine diffusion MRI measures of brain structure with functional brain activity and behavior to identify predictors of dual-task interference in PD.
More about the research
Most research on this has focused on walking or one-handed movements. The brain circuits behind trouble with two-handed (bimanual) coordination under mental load are poorly understood. Current treatments manage symptoms but do not slow the disease, partly because these circuits are not well mapped.
Why it matters
People with Parkinson's disease often struggle with daily tasks that combine hand coordination and thinking. Identifying the brain changes behind this dual-task interference may guide targeted rehabilitation strategies that improve both movement and thinking in people with PD.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Paul Regier
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Neuroscience·Early-career
Compare executive-function scores and prefrontal cortex activity, measured with fNIRS (light-based brain imaging), between people with opioid use disorder and healthy controls.
Keith Vogt
University of Pittsburgh, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether touching different ear points with von Frey filaments activates distinct regions of the somatosensory and prefrontal cortex in pain-free volunteers, measured with fNIRS, a light-based brain imaging method.
Corey Bohil
Lawrence Technological University, MI·Psychology
Identify brain activity markers of uncertainty with fNIRS, which tracks blood oxygen in the cortex, to improve understanding of decision making.
The school
University of Delaware: 22 labs on PI Pages, $466M a year on research, 298 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.