Tony Carlsen

Biography

Dr. Carlsen is an Assistant Professor in the School of Human Kinetics. His research focuses on the early preparation and initiation of voluntary movements and their associated synergies in both healthy populations and populations with disordered movement.

Dr. Carlsen received his Ph.D. in Human Motor Control from the University of British Columbia in 2008, after which he completed a two-year postdoctoral fellowship in Sensorimotor Neurophysiology at Northwestern University, in Chicago.

To date, Dr. Carlsen has focused primarily on quick actions that are completed in the absence of feedback. In the behavioural stream of his research, he has employed an emergent paradigm in the field of neuromuscular control in order to investigate response pre-programming. This paradigm involves the use of an acoustic startling stimulus to trigger prepared movements before they are initiated through voluntary response channels. This research has provided insight into when and under what circumstances we plan movements in advance. Secondly, in order to probe the substrates and mechanisms underlying these movements, Dr. Carlsen employs neurophysiological methods and tools such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), and EMG. He also works with researchers in the use of EEG and fMRI. Finally, Dr. Carlsen works with patients with Parkinson's disease, in order to better understand how movement preparation is disrupted in disease states and to attempt to develop new interventions.

Research Interests

• Cortical and subcortical contributions to motor control
• Motor planning / preparation
• Fast response initiation
• Motor deficits in Parkinson's disease

Key Words

motor planning, Parkinson's disease, Startle, TMS, tDCS, electrophysiology