News

general updates

Harvesting momentum

sarah kraeutner

This Fall has been a season of building momentum, with each milestone propelling our lab forward. A great time was had presenting our work at the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS). Trainee Celine Balay has joined an NSERC CREATE training program focused on integrating physical, physiological, and psychological aspects of human comfort into engineering product design practices.

SCAPPS presentations! Left: Sofia Knopf, Right: Marlo Spence

We’re thrilled to share that a paper led by trainee and former Mitacs Globalink Intern Vaiedhi Wagh in collaboration with the Brain Behaviour Lab, has been published in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation. And we’re excited to announce that our lab, together with Drs. Welsh (U of Toronto), Neyedli (Dalhousie U), Manson (Queens U), and Karlinksy (Cal State U San Bernardino, has been awarded a Canadian Institutes of Health Research Planning and Dissemination grant towards finding better ways to connect the tools used in human movement research labs with real-world use.

general updates

Kicking off 2025-2026

sarah kraeutner

After a summer filled with thesis defences – big congrats to Sara Klick and Celine Balay for their successful Master’s defences – testing new set ups, data collection, and plenty of outdoor time, we are ready to kick off the new semester. Stay tuned for the launch of new projects and preliminary findings. And looking forward to the upcoming meeting for the Canadian Society for Psychomotor Learning and Sport Psychology (SCAPPS) where Marlo Spence and Sofia Knopf will be presenting work conducted during their summer studentships!

Left: overlooking Okanagan Lake, Right: overlooking our new electromyography set up
general updates

Campus to community

sarah kraeutner

Field trip to the Vernon Library for “Understanding stroke research in the Okanagan”! At this event, UBC Researchers, Interior Health Clinicians, March of Dimes & Patient Partners came together to talk and answer questions on advancements in clinical trials, research programs, resources and after-stroke supports. Thanks to the organizing team for such an excellent event and to the Vernon Library for hosting us!

trainees in the spotlight

That’s a wrap on #RIO2025

sarah kraeutner

Wrapped up an excellent Research in Imagery and Observation meeting with talks from trainee Sara Klick (motor imagery-related brain activation after stroke), and soon off for his tenure-track position Dr. Matt Scott (mechanisms of simultaneous observation and imagery of movement, or ‘AOMI’). Thanks to Dr. Robert Hardwick, the BAS lab, and UC Louvain for hosting! Pictured: NIMBL at the conference (left); NIMBL exploring beautiful Brussels before heading back to Canada (missing Matt – bottom).

trainees in the spotlight

NIMBL goes to Brussels!

sarah kraeutner

We’ve arrived at UCLouvain and had a great first day at the Research in Imagery and Observation meeting. Kicked things off with an excellent symposium our ability to imagine movements. We also heard from trainees Kyle Vallido and Celine Balay, who presented on neural mechanisms of kinaesthetic vs. visual motor imagery (Kyle, photo #1), and the use of virtual reality to provide feedback during motor imagery-based learning (Celine, photo #2). Looking forward to another great line up of talks tomorrow!

Uncategorized

Trainee Alisha Davis wins ‘Research Impact’ Award!

sarah kraeutner
A person is standing at a podium; in the background there is a large screen showing an image; the audience is sitting facing the person presenting.
Trainee Alisha Davis presenting her work at a recent conference

Graduate student Alisha has been awarded the Research Impact Award by the Department of Psychology (Okanagan), in recognition of a notable scientific contribution made in 2024-2025.

Her publication, titled “Transformation but not generation of motor images is disrupted following stimulation over the left inferior parietal lobe” (in Neuropsychologia) offers an important contribution to our understanding of the role of the parietal lobe in imagined movement, using an innovative design that allowed her to obtain direct evidence for this role. This publication represents a major milestone in Alisha’s academic career: it is her first first-authored paper, and reflects both the strength of her research and her commitment to the development of future researchers, as she engaged and mentored junior students throughout this project.

An open-access paper, a major career milestone, and now a department-wide award—congratulations, Alisha! We can’t wait to see what you do next. 🧠🎉

trainees in the spotlight

Eyes on the Scott lab, coming soon to Texas A&M!

sarah kraeutner

Postdoctoral Fellow Dr. Matthew Scott will be joining the Department of Kinesiology & Sport Management, Division of Motor Neuroscience, at Texas A&M University as an Assistant Professor this July. He is set to launch the Motor Cognition, Neuroscience and Behavior Lab! Huge congratulations Matt!
You can follow Matt’s journey here: https://bsky.app/profile/mattscott93.bsky.social