Rajal G. Cohen
Curriculum Vitae
April 2010


    Current Position

  • Title: Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Supervisor: Fay Horak, Ph.D., P.T.
  • Laboratory: Balance Disorders Laboratory
  • Department: Neurology
  • Institution: Oregon Health Sciences University
  • Address: 505 NW 185th Ave, Beaverton, OR 97006
  • Phone: 503-418-2603
  • Email: cohenra@ohsu.edu

    Education

  • The Pennsylvania State University ..... Ph.D., Psychology (minor in Kinesiology), 2008
  • The Pennsylvania State University ..... M.S., Psychology, 2005
  • Wesleyan University (Connecticut) ... B.A., Psychology, 2002

    Dissertation

  • Topic: Ready for action: fixational limb movements reveal forthcoming voluntary movements
  • Committee: David Rosenbaum (chair), Dagmar Sternad (minor adviser), Cathleen Moore, Daniel Weiss, Paola Dussias (outside member)

    Academic Honors & Awards

  • 2009 ............... NIH funding to attend fMRI training in Ann Arbor, Michigan
  • 2008-2010…... Post-Doctoral Training Fellowship, Neurological Sciences Institute, Oregon Health Sciences University
  • 2008 ............... Penn State College of Liberal Arts Dissertation Award
  • 2007 ............... RGSO Travel Award to European Workshop on Movement Science
  • 2006 ............... Young Scientist Travel Award to Carnegie Symposium on Cognition
  • 2004 ............... Psychology Departmental Travel Award to Psychonomics
  • 2002-2005 ...... Penn State University Graduate Fellowship
  • 1989-1990 .... Wesleyan University A.L. Brown Scholarship
  • 1987-1990 .... Wesleyan University Johnston Trust Scholarship
  • 1987-1988 .... National Elks Foundation Scholarship
  • 1987-1988 .... National Merit Scholarship

    Professional Certification

  • AmSAT certified teacher of the Alexander Technique, May 1997

    Editorial Work

  • Ad hoc reviewer for:
    ... Experimental Brain Research
    ... Journal of Motor Behavior
    ... Motor Control
    ... Cognitive Brain Research
    ... Journal of Experimental Psychology - Human Perception & Performance
    ... Journal of Psychophysiology

    Research Interests

  • General
    ...Perception and action, posture and gait, skill acquisition, cognitive neuroscience, aging

  • Specific
    … Role of cognition in posture, gait, and movement
    ……. Memory, attention, body schema, intention, inhibition, readiness
    ... Neurophysiology of movement
    ……. Relations among basal ganglia, brainstem and frontal cortex
    ……. Anticipatory postural adjustments
    ……. Muscle synergies
    ... The spectrum of movement quality
    ……. Parkinson’s disease, aging, back pain
    ……. Skill acquisition, movement meditation

    Teaching Experience

  • Instructor
    ...Spring 2007, Penn State, Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
    ...Fall 2006, Penn State, Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

  • Teaching Assistant (Fall 2003 - Spring 2006)
    ...MATLAB for Behavioral Scientists (graduate course)
    ...Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
    ...Child Development (including leading 3 discussion sections)
    ...Introduction to Research Methods (including leading 2 lab sections)
    ...Biological Psychology (including exam preparation)
    ...Emotions (including grading and exam preparation)
    ...Advanced Learning and Conditioning (including grading and exam preparation)

  • Other
    ...1997- present, workshops and private lessons in the Alexander Technique

    Journal Articles – published

  • Cohen, R.G., Biddle, J., & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2009) Manual obstacle avoidance takes into account visual uncertainty, motor noise, and biomechanical costs. Experimental Brain Research, 193, 69-83.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Sternad, D. (2009). Multiple routes to improvement: Minimizing effects of neural noise on performance by exploiting redundancy and tolerance in the task space. Experimental Brain Research, 0201, , 587-592.
  • Cohen, R.G., & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2007). Directional bias of limb tremor prior to voluntary movement. Psychological Science, 18, 8-12.
  • Weigelt, M., Cohen, R., Rosenbaum, D.A. (2007). Returning home: location memory versus posture memory in object manipulation. Experimental Brain Research, 179, 191-198.
  • Rosenbaum, D.A., Cohen, R.G., Jax, S., Weiss, D. & van der Wel, R.G.J. (2007). The problem of serial order in behavior: Lashley’s Legacy. Human Movement Science, 26, 525–554.
  • Rosenbaum, D.A., Halloran, E.S, & Cohen, R.G. (2006). Precision requirements affect grasp choices. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 13, 918-922.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2004). Where objects are grasped reveals how grasps are planned: Generation and recall of grasps. Experimental Brain Research, 157, 486-495.

    Journal Articles – in preparation

  • Cohen, R.G. & Sternad, D. Beyond the limits of precision timing: Development of an equifinal trajectory for throwing.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Rosenbaum, D.A. The thought-action continuum: Evidence from manual micro-movements.
  • Cohen, R.G., Nutt, J., & Horak, F.B. Freezing of gait: Does failure of executive function precipitate decoupling of APA and step?

    Chapters

  • Rosenbaum, D.A., Vaughan, J., Meulenbroek, R.G.J., Jax, S. & Cohen, R.G. (2009). Smart moves: the psychology of everyday perceptual-motor acts. In P. M. Gollwitzer, J. A. Bargh, & E. Morsella (Eds.), Oxford Handbook Of Human Action (pp. 121-135). Oxford University Press.
  • Rosenbaum, D.A., Cohen, R.G., Dawson, A.M., Jax, S.A., Meulenbroek, R.G., van der Wel, R., & Vaughan, J. (2009). The posture-based motion planning framework: new findings related to object manipulation, moving around obstacles, moving in three spatial dimensions, and haptic tracking. In D. Sternad (Ed.), Progress in Motor Control- A Multidisciplinary Perspective (pp. 485-497). Springer.
  • Rosenbaum, D.A., Cohen, R.G., Meulenbroek, R.G. J., & Vaughan, J. (2006). Plans for grasping objects. In M.L. Latash & F. Lestienne (Eds.), Progress in Motor Control (pp 9-25). Springer-Verlag
  • Rosenbaum, D., Augustyn, J., Cohen, R., & Jax, S. (2006). Perceptual-motor expertise. In K.A. Ericsson, N. Charness, P.J. Feltovich, R.R. Hoffman (Eds.), Cambridge Handbook of Expertise and Expert Performance (pp. 505-520). Cambridge University Press.

    Presentations

  • Cohen, R.G., Nutt, J., & Horak, F.B. (2009). Failure to synchronize postural preparation and stepping may trigger freezing of gait in Parkinson’s disease. Poster presented to the Society for Neuroscience, Chicago, IL, October 18.
  • Cohen, R.G., Nutt, J., & Horak, F.B. (2009). Multiple APAs during voluntary step initiation in healthy subjects. Poster presented to the International Society for Gait and Posture Research, Bologna, Italy, June 25.
  • Cohen, R.G. (2008). Microkinematics of movement preparation: Tremor as a window into the mind. Talk presented at Action Club, Penn State University, University Park, Pa, April 25.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2008). Tremor as a window into the mind. Poster presented at Penn State Graduate Exhibition, Penn State University, University Park, Pa, March 30.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Sternad, D. (2007). Variability is more than just noise: quantification of exploration, sensitivity to error, and covariation. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of The Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA, November 2-7.
  • Abe, M., Cohen, R.G. & Sternad, D. (2007). Influence of success criteria on trial-to-trial fluctuations in a discrete goal-directed task. Poster presented at the Annual Meeting of The Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA, November 2-7.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Sternad, D. (2007). Shift, shuffle, and shrink: Three components of performance improvement in a throwing task. Talk presented at European Workshop on Movement Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 31-June 2.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2007). Directionally specific preparatory activity. Poster presented at European Workshop on Movement Science, Amsterdam, Netherlands, May 31-June 2.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Sternad, D. (2007). Skill learning and refinement in a redundant task: minimizing timing errors with an "equifinal trajectory" Talk presented at New England Sequencing and Timing, New Haven, CT, March 5.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Sternad, D. (2006). Skill learning and refinement: the role of timing, noise reduction, and equifinality in a throwing task. Poster presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, Atlanta, GA, October 14-18.
  • Rosenbaum, D. A. & Cohen, R. G. (2005). Looking into the future: How we grasp objects reflects anticipation of future positions. Talk presented at the 46th Annual Meeting of The Psychonomics Society, Toronto, Ontario, November 12.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2005). Are movement and stillness essentially the same? Poster presented at Progress in Motor Control V, University Park, PA, August 17-20.
  • Cohen, R.G. (2005). Why should cognitive psychologists care about motor control? Invited talk presented to the Department of Psychology, Jagellonian University, Krakow, Poland, May 20.
  • Cohen, R.G., Ludwig, A., McCullough, J., New, A., Parkins, A., Rosenbaum, D.A. (2005). Does the end-state comfort effect hold when objects are rotated? Talk presented at the Second International Workshop on Posture-Based Motion Planning, University Park, PA, April 4.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2005). Still moving. Talk presented at New England Sequencing and Timing, New Haven, CT, March 5.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2004). Moving and holding still: Two control systems or one? Poster presented at Psychonomics, Minneapolis, MN, November 18.
  • Cohen, R.G. & Rosenbaum, D.A. (2003). The end-state comfort effect holds for continuous tasks. Talk presented at SCAPPS Conference, Hamilton, Ontario, October 16-18.
  • Cohen, R., Benjamin, S., Fleckenstein, R., Sopronyi, K., Halloran, E., & Rosenbaum, D. (2003). Where shall I grasp it? Evidence for the end-state comfort effect in object transport. Talk presented at The First International Workshop on Posture-Based Motion Planning, State College, Pennsylvania, March 19-21.
  • Cohen, R. & King, J. (2002). How does Ritalin affect the electrical activity of the brain? An EEG study of children diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder. Talk presented at Radford University Undergraduate/Graduate Research Forum, Radford, Virginia, April 25.