Pieter Medendorp

Postdoctoral Fellow,

CIHR Group for Action and Perception and

York Centre for Vision Research
York University, 4700 Keele St.,
Toronto, ON, CANADA, M3J 1P3
tel: (416) 736-2100 x33726
fax: (416) 736-5814
email: pieter@yorku.ca
 
 

 

BIOGRAPHY:
Education

M.Sc. Physics, Nijmegen University, The Netherlands
Ph.D. Physics, Nijmegen University, The Netherlands.
Thesis: Control of eye, head and arm movements for action and perception 
 

Fellowship

Long-Term Fellowship (2001-2003).

Project: Updating visual space during head movements: the implications of rotational and translational kinematics
 

RESEARCH PROJECT:
Spatial Updating. This research project aims at clarifying the interaction between motion and vision. More specifically, it focuses on how visual information is updated for eye and head motion, how it is transformed into perceptual representations and motor actions, and where the neural circuitry for these different transformations can be identified. The proposal will expand to this question in three steps: 1)  Modeling. Modeling the geometric problems that arise for updating visual space across eye and head movements considering both translational and rotational kinematics. 2) Psychophysics. Behavioral experiments should elucidate whether the spatial updating processes account for the 3-D and non-commutative aspects of eye and head rotations, besides being concerned with object depth and translational information. 3) Cortical Mechanisms. Functional MRI will be used to probe the basic cortical substrates of these processes.

 
PUBLICATIONS:
 

W.P. Medendorp, J.D. Crawford

Visuospatial updating of reaching targets in near and far space 

NeuroReport 13: 633-636, 2002

 

W.P. Medendorp, M.A. Smith, D.B. Tweed, J.D. Crawford

Rotational remapping in human spatial memory during eye and head motion

Journal of Neuroscience 22, RC196 1-4, 2002.

 

W.P. Medendorp, J.A.M. Van Gisbergen, C.C.A.M. Gielen

Human gaze stabilization during active head translations

Journal of Neurophysiology 87: 295-304, 2002.
 

M.A. Admiraal, W.P. Medendorp, C.C.A.M. Gielen

Three-dimensional head and upper arm orientations during kinematically redundant movements and at rest

Experimental Brain Research 142: 181-192, 2002
 

A.D. Van Beuzekom, W.P. Medendorp, J.A.M. Van Gisberen

The subjective vertical and the sense of self orientation during active body tilt.
Vision Research 41: 3229-3242, 2001.
 

W.P. Medendorp, J.A.M. Van Gisbergen, S. Van Pelt, C.C.A.M. Gielen
Context compensation in the vestibulo-ocular reflex during active head rotations
Journal of Neurophysiology 84: 2904-2917, 2000.

W.P. Medendorp, J.D. Crawford, D.Y.P. Henriques, J.A.M. Van Gisbergen, C.C.A.M. Gielen
Kinematic strategies for upper arm - forearm coordination in three dimensions
Journal of Neurophysiology 84: 2302-2316, 2000.

W.P. Medendorp, J.A.M. Van Gisbergen, M.W.I.M. Horstink, C.C.A.M. Gielen
Donders' law in torticollis
Journal of Neurophysiology 82: 2833-2838, 1999

W.P. Medendorp, B.J.M. Melis, C.C.A.M. Gielen, J.A.M. Van Gisbergen
Off-centric rotation axes in natural head movements: implications for vestibular reafference and kinematic redundancy
Journal of Neurophysiology 79: 2025-2039, 1998

W.P. Medendorp, S. Van Asselt, C.C.A.M. Gielen
Pointing to remembered visual targets after active one-step self-displacements within reaching space
Experimental Brain Research 125: 50-60, 1999

B.M. Van Bolhuis, W.P. Medendorp, C.C.A.M. Gielen
Motor-unit firing behavior in human arm flexor muscles during sinusoidal isometric contractions and movements.
Experimental Brain Research 117: 120-130, 1997.

BOOK CHAPTERS
 

D.Y.P. Henriques, W.P. Medendorp, A.Z. Khan, J.D. Crawford. 

Visuomotor transformations for eye-hand coordination. 

In: The Brain’s Eyes: Neurobiological and Clinical aspects of Oculomotor Research. Eds. J. Hyona, D. Munoz, W. Heide, and R. Radach. in press. 2002

W.P. Medendorp, B.J. Bakker, J.A.M. Van Gisbergen, C.C.A.M. Gielen
Human gaze stabilization for voluntary off-centric head rotations
Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 871: 426-429, 1999