B.Sc. University of British Columbia 2002
Ph.D. Johns Hopkins School of Medicine 2009

• 2009-2013: Postdoctoral Fellowship in Neuroscience, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Grants

2023-2026: Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation research grant 2319108."Retention and generalization of cross-sensory recalibration in hand perception."

2020-2025: Principal Investigator. NIH, National Institutes of Neural Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) research grant R01 NS112367-01A1. "Neural basis of sensory and motor learning."

2018-2021: Principal Investigator, National Science Foundation research grant 1753915. "Reciprocal effects of adaptation in the brain’s motor and sensory systems."

Scholarly Interest

Skilled movement and body representation. Learning to perform skilled movement requires changes in both how the body moves and how the brain perceives the body. For example, learning to use a computer mouse involves linking a cursor on a screen the brain's representation of the hand. Many of our studies examine the processes underlying such changes in body representation, seeking to understand how such changes are retained over time and applied in other contexts. Changes in the brain's representation of the body during skill learning has been little investigated, compared to changes in the movement itself. This leaves an incomplete picture that limits advances in fields such as computational and systems neuroscience and rehabilitation. An important innovation of our research is to test changes in body representation using both body position sense (proprioception), which arises from sensors in the muscles, and visual signals, which arise from viewing one's own moving body. Integration of sensory signals from multiple sources (multisensory integration) is a fundamental property of the brain.

Future applications of this research. Research in these areas is particularly important for any application where modification of the body representation may be impacted, such as prosthetic devices or virtual reality. Our projects will provide a basis for determining the best ways of training people with such technologies in industrial, military, and medical settings. For example, how a technician trained to operate a telerobotic interface can best retain changes in body representation for the next time he uses it, and how he can more quickly learn to use the interface in an untrained activity. Our research is also important for future advances in clinical research. For example, people who survive a stroke frequently have complex sensorimotor deficits that limit their ability to function. Improved understanding of sensory-motor interactions in the healthy brain will help clinical researchers improve current techniques of motor rehabilitation after stroke.

Our recent work. We use different research tools to answer different research questions. Some of our studies involve only behavioral methods, where we ask participants to point at targets or report what they perceive. These generally use a set of touchscreens or a robotic manipulandum. Some of our studies ask what role is played by specific parts of the brain, or how brain pathways change during a behavior; we use transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) for these experiments. We also make use of the excellent neuroimaging resources available here at IU.

Sensorimotor Neurophysiology Lab

Reisman, D.S., Block, H.J., and Bastian, A..J. (2005). Interlimb cooridination during locomotion: What can be adapted and stored? Journal of Neurophysiology 94: 2403-15.

Bo, J., Block, H.J., Clark, J.E., and Bastian, A.J. (2008). A cerebellar deficit in sensorimotor prediction explains movement timing variability. Journal of Neurophysiology 100: 2825-32.

Block, H.J., and Bastian, A.J. (2010). Sensory reweighting in targeted reaching: Effect of conscious effort, error history, and target salience. Journal of Neurophysiology 103: 206-217.

Block, H.J., and Bastian, A.J. (2011). Sensory weighting and realignment: Independent compensatory processes. Journal of Neurophysiology 106: 59-70.

Block, H.J., and Bastian, A.J. (2012). Cerebellar involvement in motor but not sensory adaptation. Neuropsychologia 50(8): 1766-75.

Block, H.J., and Celnik, P. (2012). Can cerebellar transcranial direct current stimulation become a valuable neurorehabilitation intervention? Invited Editorial, Expert Review of Neurotherapeutics 12(11): 1275-1277(3).

Block, H.J., Bastian, A.J., Celnik, P. (2013). Virtual lesion of angular gyrus disrupts the relationship between visuoproprioceptive weighting and realignment. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 25(4):636-48.

Block, H.J., and Celnik, P. (2013). Stimulating the Cerebellum Affects Visuomotor Adaptation but not Intermanual Transfer of Learning. Cerebellum: 12(6): 781-93.

Hoseini, N., Sexton, B.M., Kurtz, K., Liu, Y., Block, H.J. (2015). Adaptive staircase measurement of proprioception. PLoS One: 10(8).

Hoseini, N., Munoz, L.F., Wan, H.Y., Block, H.J. (2016). Motor point associative stimulation (MPAS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) over sensorimotor cortex to improve manual dexterity. Neuroscience Letters: 633: 134-140.

Spampinato, D., Block, H.J., Celnik, P. (2017). Cerebellar-M1 connectivity changes associated to motor learning are somatotopic specific. J Neurosci 2511-16.

Munoz-Rubke, F., Mirdamadi, J.L., Lynch, A.K., Block, H.J. (2017). Visuo-proprioceptive misalignment and associated changes in motor cortex physiology. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 29(12): 2054-67.

Liu, Y., Sexton, B.M., Block, H.J. (2018). Spatial bias in estimating the position of visual and proprioceptive targets. Journal of Neurophysiology 119, 1879-1888.

Block, H.J., Sexton, B.M., Liu, Y.(2019). Nuance in statistical reporting: Reply to Heroux. Letter to the Editor. Journal of Neurophysiology.

Block, H.J., Mirdamadi, J.L., Ryckman, S., Wilson, R., Lynch, A.K., Udayan, D., Massie, C. (2019). A tool for accurate measurement of proprioception in the clinical setting. Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy.

Sexton, B.M., Liu, Y., Block, H.J. (2019). Increase in weighting of vision vs. proprioception associated with force field adaptation. Scientific Reports 9(1):10167.

Mirdamadi, J.L., Block, H.J. (2020). Somatosensory changes associated with complex motor skill learning. Journal of Neurophysiology 123(3):1052-1062.

Bartolomeo L.B., Shin, Y.W., Block, H.J., Bolbecker, A.R., Breier, A.F., O'Donnell, B.F., & Hetrick, W.P. (2020). Prism adaptation deficits in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 46(5):1202-1209.

Sexton, B.M., Block, H.J. (2020). Visuo-proprioceptive control of the hand in older adults. Multisensory Research 34(1):93-111.

Liu, Y., Block, H.J. (2020). The effect of sequence learning on sensorimotor adaptation. Behavioural Brain Research 398:1-12. Article 112979.

Mirdamadi, J.L., Block, H.J. (2021). Somatosensory versus cerebellar contributions to proprioceptive changes associated with motor skill learning: A theta burst stimulation study. Cortex 140:98-109.

Mirdamadi, J.L., Seigel, C.R., Husch, S.D., Block, H.J. (2022). Somatotopic specificity of neural and perceptual changes in spatial estimation of the hand. Cerebral Cortex 32(6): 1184-1199.

Hsiao A., Lee-Miller T., Block H.J. (2022). Conscious awareness of a visuo-proprioceptive mismatch: Effect on cross-sensory recalibration. Frontiers in Neuroscience—Perception Science.

Huibregtse, M.E., Sweeney, S.H., Stephens, M.R., Cheng, H., Chen, Z., Block, H.J., Newman, S. Keisuke, K. (2022). Association between serum NfL and GFAP levels and head impact burden in women's collegiate water polo. Journal of Neurotrauma.

Oh, J., Mahnan, A., Xu, J., Block, H.J., Konczak, J. (2023). Typical Development of Finger Position Sense from Late Childhood to Adolescence. Journal of Motor Behavior 55(1): 102-110.

Park, J.H., Benson, R.F., Morgan, K.D., Matharu, R., Block, H.J. (2023).  Balance effects of tactile stimulation at the foot. Human Movement Science 87: 103024.

Wali M., Lee-Miller T., Babu R., Block H.J. (2023). Retention of visuo-proprioceptive recalibration in estimating hand position. Scientific Reports 13(1): 6097. doi: 10.1038/s41598-023-33290-0.

Block, H.J., Liu, Y. (2023). Visuo-proprioceptive recalibration and the sensorimotor map. Journal of Neurophysiology 129: 1249–1258. doi: 10.1152/jn.00493.2022.

Babu R., Wali M., Lee-Miller T., Block H.J. (2023). Effect of visuo-proprioceptive mismatch rate on recalibration in hand perception. Experimental Brain Research. doi: 10.1007/s00221-023-06685-8.