Dr Charles Worringham

Project Highlights

Dr Worringham’s recent research centres on some specific issues in the fields of motor control and learning, and movement disorders, and he is also participating in studies of workplace injury.

Research Areas

• Visuomotor AdaptationStimulus
• Response Compatibility (SRC)
• Movement Disorders
• Motor Learning and Control
• Workplace Injury

1. Visuomotor Adaptation

Researchers:

Dr Charles Worringham, Prof. Otmar Bock (DSHS, Köln, Germany )

Research Summary:

When the normal relationships between a limb movement’s actual direction and its apparent direction differ (as occurs, for example, when a person views their arm movements through a prism), fairly rapid and relatively automatic adaptation occurs, and has been a valuable window on mechanisms of motor learning. Visuomotor adaptation has much in common with some aspects of stimulus-response compatibility (see next section), and together, we are exploring this overlap. Although the experiments address fundamental adaptive processes, a longer-term goal is to improve safety in the operation of equipment where incompatible movement relationships exist, or which require visuomotor adaptation.

Publications:

Bock O, Worringham C, Thomas M (2005 in press) Concurrent adaptation of left and right arm to opposite visual distortions. Experimental Brain Research.

2. Stimulus Response Compatibility (SRC)

Dr Charles Worringham, Dr Graham Kerr

When movements must be made in response to visual or other stimuli, and the relationship between them is unexpected or unnatural (such as having to press a button on the left in response to a light on the right, or vice versa), then the stimulus-response arrangement is said to be incompatible. Exploring the underlying mechanisms provides important information about response selection generally, as well as leading to principles that can be embedded in the design of potentially dangerous equipment. Recent work has focussed on three areas: establishing basic principles of directional stimulus compatibility, determining the contribution of proprioceptive inputs in SRC tasks, and, with recent Honours student Felicia Stokes, examining candidate brain mechanisms of SRC using trans-cranial magnetic stimulation.

Publications:

Worringham CJ, Kerr GK (2000). Proprioception and stimulus response compatibility. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. 53A:69-83

Worringham CJ, Beringer DB (1998).Directional stimulus-response compatibility: A test of three alternative principles. Ergonomics, 41:864-880.

Stokes, F.K. (2001). The influence of suprathreshold transcranial magnetic stimulation of the motor and parietal cortices on the performance of a stimulus-response compatibility task. (Unpublished Honours thesis). Supervisors: C.Worringham and G. Kerr.

3. Movement Disorders

A long-term interest in Parkinson’s disease has more recently focussed on motor learning in this condition (as well as cerebellar disease), and on the use of motor, visual and cognitive measures as predictors of driving ability in Parkinson’s disease.

Publications:

Wood, JM, Worringham C, Kerr G, Mallon K, Silburn P. (2005). Quantitative assessment of driving performance in Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, & Psychiatry. 76:176-180.

Smiley-Oyen AL, Worringham CJ, Cross CL (2003). Motor learning in a movement scaling task in olivopontocerbellar atrophy and Parkinson’s disease. Experimental Brain Research. 152:453-465.

Smiley-Oyen AL ; Worringham CJ; Cross CL (2002). Practice effects in three-dimensional sequential rapid aiming in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders. 17:1196-204.

Woolley DM. (2003). Motor learning and adaptation in cerebellar disease. (Unpublished Honours thesis). Supervisors: C.Worringham and G. Kerr.

4. Motor Learning and Control

Publications:

Smiley-Oyen AL, Worringham CJ (2001). Peripheral constraint versus on-line programming in rapid aimed sequential movements. Acta Psychologica 108:219-245.

Howard JT III (2003). Physical guidance in motor learning. (Unpublished Honours thesis). Supervisors: C.Worringham and G. Kerr.

5. Workplace Injury

In the last three years I have assisted Prof, Tony Parker with a series of projects concerning injury prevention in the workplace, most particularly in the coal-mining industry.

Publications:

Parker, A.W. & Worringham, C. (2004). Fitness for work in mining: not a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Queensland Mining Industry Health & Safety Conference 2004: Sustaining our future . Townsville, Qld, 15-18 August 2004, pp. 27-31.

Parker, A.W. & Worringham, C. (2004). Managing the ageing workforce: Issues and opportunities for the Queensland coal mining industry. Queensland Mining Industry Health & Safety Conference 2004: Sustaining our future. Townsville, Qld, 15-18 August 2004, pp. 9-12.

Grants

2005 – 2006

• $224,198 – Parker A, Worringham C., Smeathers J. Burgess-Limerick, R., Short and long-term adaptations to work in coal mining: towards a sustainable injury-free workforce. Injury Prevention and Control, Australia, Ltd.

2004 – 2005

• $110,235 – Parker A, Worringham C. Age-related changes in work ability and injury risk in underground and open cut coal miners. Australian Coal Research Ltd.  

2003 – 2004

• $100,487 – Parker A, Worringham C, Hubinger L. Evaluation of workload distribution in underground mining and the development of strategies to reduce overuse injury. Coal Services Pty Ltd.

2003 – 2005

• $27,068 – Worringham CJ, Bock O. Visuomotor Adaptation and Stimulus-Response Compatibility: Basic mechanisms and Improved Safety of Heavy Equipment. ARC Linkage International Award

2001 – 2003

• $128,976 – Worringham CJ, Kerr GK. Directional stimulus response compatibility. ARC Large Grant.

2001 – 2002

• $50,000 –  Worringham C, Kerr G, Wood J, Silburn P. Prediction of driving performance in Parkinson’s disease. Motor Accident Insurance Commission Road Accident Prevention and Road Safety Research Grant.