James Lackner & Paul DiZio

Drs. Lackner and DiZio are the director and associate director of the Ashton Graybiel Spatial Orientation Laboratory.

The centerpiece of the laboratory is the slow rotating room, a 6.7 m diameter habitat capable of rotating up to 35 rpm in order to generate 4.5 g of resultant force. It is ideal for experimental studies of adaptation to an artificial gravity environment and basic research on human motor control and spatial orientation.

Active study topics include neural control of muscle activation for reaching movements, central nervous system internal models of Coriolis forces in natural turn and reach movements, vestibular and non-vestibular factors in eye-head coordination, the role of cutaneous fingertip contact cues in stabilization of posture, gait and apparent orientation, movement control in virtual environments.

Lackner and DiZio have worked together for almost 20 years and have published a very large number of joint papers, have joint grants and jointly mentor students and postdocs.