Who we are

A few of us at various Society for Neuroscience annual meetings.

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Lauren E. Sergio, PhD

York Tier I Research Chair in Brain Health and Gender in Action

Lauren received her PhD, specializing in the neural control of movement, from McGill University in 1994, supervised by Dr. David Ostry. She pursued post-doctoral studies in neurophysiology at the Université de Montréal with Dr. John Kalaska. She is also a member of the York University Sport Medicine team, and is a research affiliate at Southlake Regional Health Centre. Preferred pronouns She, Her, Hers

Research Scientists

Diana Gorbet, PhD

Diana is a Research Scientist with expertise in MRI experimental design and analysis. She completed her PhD at York in the area of sex-related differences in the neural correlates of movement control, and did post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Waterloo and at the Centre for Vision Research at York. Her current research examines hormonal and sex-related influences on the neurophysiology of complex skill control.

PhD students

Nicole Smeha (off in another, augmented, reality...)

Nicole completed her BSc and MSc in Kinesiology at York University. Following an independent study on fundamental neuroscience of non-standard reach movements, she began an MSc focusing on assessing the efficacy of a holistic intervention program in the rehabilitation of post-concussion syndrome. She is currently leading research asking the question "Can menopause change your brain?", examining the relationship between skilled performance brain network function and sex hormones across the lifespan in women and men. 

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Sonia Vovan, rPT

Sonia is a Registered Physiotherapist and Vestibular Therapist (based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada) with a passion for helping everyone get back to doing what they love. Her research, in collaboration with KITE research group at the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, examines concussion recovery and multi-domain integration in working-aged adults. 

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Sara Weinberg

Sara completed her MSc in Kinesiology and Health Science at York University examining Nonlinear analysis of the effects of vision and postural threat on upright stance. Co-supervised by Dr. Taylor Cleworth, she is now pursuing doctoral work examining the relationship between concussions, CMI performance, balance, athletic status, hormone levels, and possible brain network communication deficits in working-aged, elite female athletes with persisting symptoms. 

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George Tomou

George is completing his doctoral research examining the impact of sex and concussion history on brain network function using Graph Theory Analysis. He is also currently a faculty member at Seneca Polytechnic in Toronto. 

Master's students

CéAnn Marks

CéAnn has an undergraduate degree at the University of Ontario Institute of Technology in forensic psychology with a minor in criminology, and is interested in sex-related differences in recovery following concussion. Her current research projects examine differences in cognitive-motor integration performance in athletes who partake in contact versus collision sport, and sex-related differences in different aspects of concussion recovery. 

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Kiran Bumra

Kiran completed her BSc in life sciences, majouring in psychology, at the University of Waterloo. Her MA is focussing on the sex-related differences in brain structure and function in working-aged adults affected by persisting concussion symptoms. 

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Anthony Machula

Anthony is an avid runner who completed his BSc in Kinesiology and Health Science. He is part of our NSERC CREATE DITA programme, and is working on ways to incorporate AI deep learning techniques to predict persisting post-concussion symptoms using kinematics measured during an Augmented Reality task. He is also interested in a more fundamental neuroscientive exploration of edge cases in thinking and moving at the same time using augmented reality, brain blood oximetry (fNIRs) and machine learning models.

Undergraduate Neuroscience Students

Aaiza Khan, Dept. Biology. Project: "The effect of age, gender, and symptom severity on cognitive-visual-motor integration performance in an augmented reality environment."

Daniella Favot, Dept. Psychology. Project: "Effect of blast impact on cognitive-motor integration in Canadian Armed Forces heavy artillery operators"

Tooba Shahzad, Dept. Biology. Project: "The effect of hormone levels on brain structure, network function, and cognitive-motor integration in working-aged adults with persistent symptoms after concussion."

Support Squad

Henry, Juan, Jordan

Henry enjoys lying around, receiving pets, barking at squirrels and squirrel-like objects, and eating cheese. He is currently involved in a project involving a large chewy toy.

Juan's interests include belly rubs, long walks, and even longer naps. His long-term research program mainly focuses on the ingestion of non-traditional food sources.

Jordan is a velcro-puppy who is assisting Henry in his cheese-related knowledge translation work. He further investigates the control of movement as it pertains to soft object-jaw interactions, and the effects of vigourous chomping theirein.