It's a long way from Belfast to Brisbane, but the journey has proven more than worthwhile for principal research fellow in the Department of Human Movement Studies, Dr Richard Carson.
Dr Carson's $50,000 University of Queensland Foundation Research Excellence Award adds to the almost $830,000 he has attracted for UQ research programs since arriving in Brisbane six years ago via studies in Canada and England.
He will use the award to continue a research program aimed at increasing our understanding of the role of the brain's motor cortex and the spinal cord in the control of voluntary movement.
"This project will focus on how the activity in the motor cortex, that is required to drive particular movements of one limb on one part of the body, influence our ability to make concurrent movements with other parts of the body," Dr Carson said.
"In particular, we are looking at the spread of the neural activity in the motor cortex and how that activity, which is distributed over quite a large area in some cases, interferes with the areas of the core cortex that are required to produce those other movements.
"In this context, we are looking at representations of movement at the level of individual muscles. For example, if you put the muscle in a position where it can generate a lot of force, the motor cortex needs to do less work in order to generate the required movement. In these circumstances there is less spread of activity to other areas of the cortex.
"We are also interested in more abstract ways in which the central nervous system organises movements.
"Some of our recent work demonstrates that some movements, in particular spatial directions, are easier to perform than others. If spatial orientation is an important constraint, it would suggest that abstract representations of movement operate in conjunction with those at the level of individual muscles.
"It is expected that the outcomes will have eventual application to a number of acquired human movement deficits, in particular those arising from spinal cord injury, and will provided principled bases upon which to develop task and deficit specific programs of movement rehabilitation."
Dr Carson gained a Bachelor of Science (honors) in Psychology at the University of Bristol in 1985, and received his Master of Science (1988) and PhD (1993) in Kinesiology at the Simon Fraser University in Burnaby, Canada.
In 1997 Dr Carson won a prestigious Australian Research Council, Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship (1998-2002).
He was also selected for the Early Career Distinguished Scholar Award by the North American Society for the Psychology of Sport and Physical Activity in 1997, and was awarded a University of Queensland Postdoctoral Research Fellowship (1995-96).
Among the $827,000 research funding he has obtained, Dr Carson is particularly pleased with a $118,101 grant from the National Health and Medical Research Council. "The Department of Human Movement Studies had no history of obtaining funding from that agency," he said.
Dr Carson sees the Foundation Excellence Award as an endorsement of his work, and that of his colleagues.
"It's one thing to be competitive and successful getting external grants, and there is a lot of kudos associated with that, but it's also nice to get some recognition from within your own university because universities are still collegiate in nature and the views of your peers are important," he said.
Dr Carson's has had 43 papers published in refereed journals and edited volumes, and more than 60 refereed conference presentations.
Since August 1995 he has been the Associate Editor of Human Movement Science, published by North Holland Publishing Company, Amsterdam, and since July last year has been a Consulting Editor of the Journal of Motor Behaviour, published by Heldref Publications, Washington DC.
He is also an ad hoc reviewer for scientific journals including Experimental Brain Research, the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology and Motor Control, and is a reviewer for national granting agencies such as the Australian Research Council and the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada.
