Staff

Dr Thomas Schenk

Biography

Those skills which come most natural to us are in fact often the most difficult to achieve. That is certainly true of our remarkable capacity to precisely control the movement of our hand. If we want to pick up a small object from the table, we will just reach forward without thinking about it. But ask an engineer to build a robot that does the same or watch a patient suffering from limb ataxia and you will become aware of the fact that the program involved in this seemingly simple motor act must be extremely complex and highly vulnerable. What sensory information do we use and how do we use it when we perform skilled hand movements. What goes wrong in patients with movement disorders? What can we learn from those patients about the neural pathways underlying human motor control and how can we apply that knowledge to improve the treatment and rehabilitation of patients with movement disorders? These are some of the questions I am interested in. My recent work included research on the following topics: ? Why is it that some patients with severe movement disorders are much improved when catching a rapidly moving object? ? Can a patient who is unable to see movement catch a moving object? ? Is Writer's cramp a motor disorder or a sensory disorder? ? What visual information do we use when we try to catch a moving object?

Indicators of Esteem

• 2006: Section Editor (Action & Motor Control) for Neuropsychologia:
• 2004: Member of the editorial advisory board of Neuropsychologia:

Research Interests

• Neuropsychology of vision, visuomotor control, motor rehabilitation

Publications

Articles: review

• Schenk, T (2004). Introducing Neuropsychology. 41(6): 758.

Books: sections

• Schenk, T (2005) In: 3.Aufl. (, eds), pp Bern: Hans Huber. (2005). Motorische Störungen: Ätiologie und Bedingungsanalyse. In Klinische Psychologie-Psychotherapie, Lehrbuch. Baumann, U & Perrez, M Bern: Hans-Huber. 589-598.
• Schenk, T (2005). Motorische Störungen: Intervention. In Klinische Psychologie-Psychotherapie, Lehrbuch. Baumann, U & Perrez, M Bern: Hans Huber. 598-604.
• Schenk, T (2005). Motorische Störungen: Klassifikation und Diagnostik. In Klinische Psychologie-Psychotherapie, Lehrbuch. Baumann, U & Perrez, M Bern: Hans-Huber. 580-589.
• Heuer, H, Schenk, T & Mai, N (1998). Motorische Störungen: Ätiologie und Bedingungsanalyse. In Klinische Psychologie, Lehrbuch,Bd.1. Grundlagen, Diagnosik und Ätiologie. Baumann, U & Perrez, M Bern: Hans-Huber. 531-540.
• Schenk, T, Mai, N & Heuer, H (1998). Motorische Störungen: Intervention. In Klinische Psychologie, Lehrbuch, Bd.1. Grundlagen, Diagnosik und Ätiologie. Baumann, U & Perrez, M Bern: Hans-Huber. 541-552.
• Mai, N, Schenk, T & Heuer, H (1998). Motorische Störungen: Klassifikation und Diagnostik. In Klinische Psychologie, Lehrbuch, Bd.1. Grundlagen, Diagnosik und Ätiologie. Baumann, U & Perrez, M Bern: Hans Huber. 525-530.
• Prosiegel, M, Böttger, S, Schenk, T, Marolf, M, Vaney, C & Garner, C (1997). The extended Barthel Index (EBI) - a new scale for assessing disability in patients with multiple sclerosis or other neurological diseases. In A problem-oriented approach to multiple sclerosis. Ketelaer P., Prosiegel M., Battaglia M. & Uccelli MM Leuven: Acco. 25-34.

Edited works: conference proceedings

• Hauck, A, Sorg, M, Schenk, T & Färber, G (1999). What can be learned from human reach-to-grasp movements for the design of robotic hand-eye systems?. Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA'99),.
• Hauck, A, Sorg, M, Schenk, T & Färber, G (1998). A Biologically Motivated Model for the Control of Visually Guided Reach-To-Grasp Movements.

Journal papers: academic

• Ellison, A., Lane, A. R. & Schenk, T. (2007). The interaction of brain regions during visual search processing as revealed by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Cerebral Cortex 17(11): 2579-2584.
• Schenk, T. (2006). An allocentric rather than perceptual deficit in patient D.F. Nature Neuroscience 9(11): 1369-1370.
• Schenk, T. & Milner, A. D. (2006). Concurrent visuomotor behaviour improves form discrimination in a patient with visual form agnosia. European Journal of Neuroscience 24(5): 1495-1503.
• Schenk, T., Ellison, A., Rice, N.J. & Milner, A.D. (2005). The role of V5/MT+ in the control of catching movements: an rTMS study. Neuropsychologia 43(2): 189-198.
• Schenk, T., Schindler, I., McIntosh, R.D. & Milner, A.D. (2005). The use of visual feedback is independent of visual awareness: evidence from visual extinction. Experimental Brain Research 167(1): 95-102.
• Schenk, T, Baur, B, Steidle, B & Marquardt, C (2004). Does training improve writer's cramp? An evaluation of a behavioural treatment approach using kinematic analysis. Journal of Hand Therapy 17: 349-363.
• Schenk, T, Mair, B & Zihl, J (2004). The use of visual feedback and on-line target information in catching and grasping. Experimental Brain Research 154(1): 85 - 96.
• Schenk, T., Baur, B., Steude, U. & Boetzel, K. (2003). Effects of deep brain stimulation on prehensile movements in PD patients are less pronounced when external timing cues are provided. Neuropsychologia 41(7): 783-794.
• Schenk, T & Mai, N (2001). Is writer's cramp caused by a deficit of sensorimotor integration? Experimental Brain Research 136(3): 321-330.
• Schenk, T, Philipp, J, Häußler, A, Hermsdörfer, J, Hauck, A & Mai, N (2000). A system for the study of hand-eye coordination in catching. Journal of Neuroscience Methods 100: 3-12.
• Schenk T, Mai, N., Ditterich, J. & Zihl, J. (2000). Can a motion-blind patient reach for moving objects? European Journal of Neuroscience 12: 3351-3360.
• Schenk T, Walther, EU & Mai, N (2000). Closed and open-loop handwriting performance in patients with multiple sclerosis. European Journal of Neurology 7: 269-279.
• Prosiegel, M, Heintze, M, Wagner-Sonntag, E, Schenk, T & Yassouridis, A (2000). Kinematic analysis of laryngeal movements in patients with neurogenic dysphagia before and after swallowing rehabilitation. Dysphagia 15: 173-179.
• Querner, V, Schenk, T & Brandt, T (1999). Motion-induced transient room tilt illusion in an otherwise healthy subject. Neuro-ophthalmology 22: 169-176.
• Schenk, T. & Mai, N. (1999). Time constraints improve reaching movements in ataxic patients. Experimental Brain Research 128: 214-218.
• Schenk T & Zihl, J. (1997). Visual motion perception after brain damage: I. Deficits in global motion perception. Neuropsychologia 35: 1289-97.
• Schenk, T & Zihl, J. (1997). Visual motion perception after brain damage: II. Deficits in form-from-motion perception. Neuropsychologia 35: 1299-1310.
• Prosiegel, M, Böttger, S, Schenk, T, König, N,, Marolf, M, Vaney, C, Garner, C & Yassouridis, A (1996). Der erweiterte Barthel-Index (EBI) - eine neue Skala zur Erfassung von Fähigkeitsstörungen bei neurologischen Patienten. Neurologische Rehabilitation 1: 7-13.