Catherine Agathos
Post-Doctoral Fellow
Degrees: Ph.D. Human Movement Science - Paris-Saclay University
MEng Biomedical Engineering - Imperial College London
MEng Biomedical Engineering - Imperial College London
Depending on the environment or postural constraint, sensory modalities may be more or less reliable and the brain therefore assigns an appropriate weight to each signal. Individual differences as well as age and pathology lead to a differential weighting of sensory information, which in turn affects how the world is perceived and how the body is controlled.
I am a postdoctoral fellow, interested in how humans interact with their environment and have been studying how visual perception and postural control are linked. In my previous work I examined the effect of differential sensory reweighting and visual sampling on locomotion and spatial cognition across the adult lifespan.
My work at Smith-Kettlewell will focus on how central field loss due to Age-related Macular Degeneration affects older adults’ weighting of different sensory information for spatial orientation perception and postural control. My position is funded by the Rachel C. Atkinson endowment and, more specifically, I will examine visual-vestibular interactions for perception and locomotor tasks under the mentorship of Dr. Natela Shanidze.
Tabs
Journal Articles
. (2020). Postural Control While Walking Interferes With Spatial Learning in Older Adults Navigating in a Real Environment. Frontiers In Aging Neuroscience. http://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2020.588653
. (2020). Age-related preference for geometric spatial cues during real-world navigation. Nature Human Behaviour, 4, 88–99. http://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0718-z
. (2019). An alternative view of dual-tasking in older adults: Cognitive-motor interference while navigating in an ecological environment. Neurophysiologie Clinique, 49, 414. http://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neucli.2019.10.161
. (2017). Drifting while stepping in place in old adults: Association of self-motion perception with reference frame reliance and ground optic flow sensitivity. Neuroscience, 347, 134–147. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.01.044
. (2015). Sensorimotor and cognitive factors associated with the age-related increase of visual field dependence: a cross-sectional study. Age, 37, 67. http://doi.org/10.1007/s11357-015-9805-x
Conference Papers
. (2019). Cognitive-motor interference in older adults while navigating in an ecological environment. In Internationa Society for Posture and Gait Research (ISPGR). Edinburgh, UK: Edinburgh, UK.
. (2018). Age-related preference for geometric cues: when aging does not impair allocentric strategies. In iSCAN. Magdeburg, Germany: Magdeburg, Germany.
. (2018). {Age-related preference for geometric cues during real-world navigation}. In Forum of Neuroscience (FENS). Berlin, Germany: Berlin, Germany.
. (2018). Age-related preference for geometric cues during real-world navigation: behavioral and neuroimaging correlates. In Interdisciplinary Navigation Symposium (iNav). Mont-Tremblant, Canada: Mont-Tremblant, Canada.
. (2017). Head orientation and stabilisation strategies across age, tasks and optic flow conditions: dynamic stimuli improve head stabilisation even in old age. In International Society for Posture and Gait Research World Congress (ISPGR). Fort Lauderdale, FL: Fort Lauderdale, FL.
. (2017). Head orientation and stabilisation strategies across age, tasks and optic flow conditions: dynamic stimuli improve head stabilisation even in old age. In International Society for Posture and Gait Research World Congress (ISPGR). Fort Lauderdale, FL: Fort Lauderdale, FL.
. (2017). Old adults drift while stepping in place: influence of ground optic flow and perceptual reference frame reliance on self-motion perception. In International Society for Posture and Gait Research World Congress (ISPGR). Fort Lauderdale, FL: Fort Lauderdale, FL.
. (2016). Centre of pressure drift when stepping in place increases with age, sensitivity to optic flow and perceptual reference frame reliance. In International Workshop on Aging in the Neuro-Musculo-Skeletal System. Marseille: Marseille.
. (2015). {Cognitive and sensorimotor factors associated with visual field dependence in the context of aging}. In Actes du 16e Congrès international de l'Association des Chercheurs en Activités Physiques et Sportives (pp. 336–337).
. (2015). Factors associated with the increased perceptual reliance on the visual reference frame with age. In International Society for Posture and Gait Research World Congress (ISPGR). Seville: Seville.
. (2011). "Capacitive" Pulse Shapes for Platinum Cuff Electrodes. In Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS (pp. 5408–5411). http://doi.org/10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6091337
Shanidze Lab
Our laboratory is interested in the mechanisms of eye and head movement and coordination and how those mechanisms are altered when visual or vestibular inputs are compromised.
Active
Active
Vestibular Function in AMD: Verticality Perception
To accurately perceive one’s own state and that of the surrounding environment, visual, vestibular and somatosensory inputs must be appropriately weighted and dynamically reweighted depending on the environment and task difficulty, as well as signal reliability (and availability). Aging is associated with an increase on visual dependence (a greater weighting of visual information). In this project we investigate how loss of visual information due to AMD affects this reweighting process and if an increase in visual dependence may be maladaptive in AMD.
Active
Coordination of Eye and Head Movements in Central Field Loss
This project investigates the interaction between central field loss (CFL) and vestibular function.
Contact Information
2318 Fillmore Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Email:
cagathos@ski.org
Links