Prof. dr. Ruud G.J. Meulenbroek

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour

Director of Master of Cognitive Neuroscience Programme

Radboud University Nijmegen


Address

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour,

Centre for Cognition

Radboud University Nijmegen

P.O. Box 9104, 6500 HE  Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Email: r.meulenbroek@donders.ru.nl

URL: http://www.socsci.ru.nl/~meulenbroek/

Tel:  +31.24.361.6031, Fax: +31.24.361.6066


Research

Since 1984 I have been involved in motor control research, in particular in studies on the information processes that underlie goal-directed arm, hand and finger movements. Following an investigation of handwriting acquisition, I studied the biomechanical and cognitive determinants of sequencing in drawing. In the 1990s my research turned to  interjoint coordination in reaching and grasping. Together with Professor David Rosenbaum (Pennstate University, PA, USA), Professor Jonathan Vaughan (Hamilton College, NY, USA) and Chris Jansen, I developed a computational model of interjoint coordination capable of simulating aiming, grasping (see demonstration program below), drawing, and handwriting movements. My current research interests focus on joint action, in particular how in shared task performance such as in sports, people learn to take into account their partner’s motor intentions.


 Projects

1984-1989

Handwriting development and training 

Funded by the Radboud University Nijmegen (The Netherlands)

1989-1993

Sequencing in drawing

Funded by The Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO)

1993-1998

Sequencing and coordination in complex human movements

Funded by The Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW)

2001-2006

Object manipulation from a perception-action perspective

Research programme funded by The Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO)

in collaboration with the universities of Utrecht, Amsterdam and Maastricht

2003-2007

Apprehending the effects of alignment and orientation illusions on human action 

Funded by the Faculty of Social Sciences (Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands)

2004-2009

Joint Action Science and Technology (see ICT Results and the JAST Publication List)
Funded by the European Commission (Cognitive Systems Unit)


Publications
You can find a list of downloadable publications here.


Teaching

Since 1996 I have been teaching psychology courses at the Radboud University Nijmegen. Sample courses are listed below. Since 2006 I am Director of the two-year Master of Cognitive Neuroscience Programme in which promising young researchers are thoroughly trained to conduct research in cognitive neuroscience.


Courses

Year 2:

Perception, Action and Development (with Rob van Lier, Arno Koning and Sabine Hunnius)

Year 3:

Action and Sport (with Harold Bekkering, Pieter Medendorp and Natalie Sebanz)

Year 4:

Motor control (with Pieter Medendorp and Luc Selen)


Demonstration

A demonstration program of the Posture-based  Motion-Planning Model of Human Reaching and Grasping Movements developed together with David Rosenbaum, Jonathan Vaughan and Chris Jansen can be downloaded from here. You will need Winzip to unpack the interactive computer program (PC-compatible executable) and the Readme.doc (Microsoft Word) file. The program allows you, among other things, to generate stick-figure animations of grasping movements and subsequently to explore the workspace and joint-space kinematics of these movements. The Readme.doc file contains instructions on how to use the program. Besides running on a PC using a Microsoft Windows operating system (Windows98, Windows NT), the program can also be run on a Macintosh G3 under emulation using VirtualPC. You can find the description of the model here.


Links

Radboud University Nijmegen

Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour

Masters of Cognitive Neuroscience Programme

Donders Graduate School for Cognitive Neuroscience

Personal…

Translator and Editor of English (UK/US) texts

String Quartets