Dr. Van Gemmert currently serves as the Interim Director of the School of Kinesiology
and is the director of the Fine Motor Control and Learning Laboratory. His research
interests centers around the control of fine motor tasks, such as handwriting, drawing,
pointing, and reach-to-grasp movements. His research can be divided into three closely
related focus areas: (1) This area of studies focuses on the mechanisms responsible
for movement control during increased demands due to stress and mental load, (2) This
area of projects focuses on the changes in fine movement control due to physiologic
deterioration of the movement system as result of advanced age and neurological disease,
(3) The final area of interest assembles knowledge gained in the areas described in
1 and 2 to understand challenges to (re)learn fine motor tasks under strenuous conditions
as a consequence of stress, mental load, advanced age, and neurological disease. Dr
Van Gemmert joined the Division of Motor Behavior in the School of Kinesiology in
the fall of 2008, and he is assigned to teach classes in motor learning.
Pan, Z., & Van Gemmert, A. W. A. (2013). The direction of bilateral transfer depends on the performance parameter.
Human Movement Science, 32,1070-1081.
Pan, Z., & Van Gemmert, A. W. A. (2013). The effects of aging on the asymmetry of inter-limb transfer in a visuomotor
task. Experimental Brain Research, 229, 621-633.
Poston, B., Van Gemmert, A. W. A., Sharma, S., Chakrabarti, S., Zavaremi, S. H., & Stelmach, G. E. (2013). Movement
trajectory smoothness is not associated with the endpoint accuracy of rapid multi-joint
arm movements in young and older adults. Acta Psychologica, 143, 157-167.
Van Gemmert, A. W. A. (2012). Timing of tone presentation does alter training performance but not retention
performance of a point-to-point sequence task. Advances in Physical Education, 2,
82-87.
Rand, M. K., Van Gemmert, A. W. A., Hossain, A. B. M. I., Shimansky, Y. P., & Stelmach, G. E. (2012). Control of aperture
closure initiation during trunk-assisted reach-to-grasp movements. Experimental Brain
Research, 219, 293-304.
Hughes, B, Van Gemmert, A. W. A., & Stelmach G. E. (2011). Linguistic and perceptual-motor contributions to the kinematic
properties of the braille reading finger. Human Movement Science, 30, 711-730.
Ringenbach, S. D. R., Van Gemmert, A. W. A., Shill, H. A., & Stelmach, G. E. (2011). Auditory instructional cues benefit unimanual
and bimanual drawing in Parkinson’s disease patients. Human Movement Science, 30,
770-782.
Vinter, A., Van Gemmert, A. W. A., & Phillips, J. G. (2011). Special issue: Progress in graphonomics: A perceptual
motor skill perspective. Human Movement Sciences, 30, 683-686.
Van Gemmert, A. W. A., Plamondon, R., & O’Reilly, C. (2013). Using the Sigma-lognormal model to investigate
handwriting of individuals with Parkinson’s disease. In M. Nakagawa, M. Liwicki, and
B. Zhu (Eds.), Proceedings of the 16th Conference of the International Graphonomics
Society (pp. 119-122). Nijmegen: IGS.
Aiken, C. A., Pan, Z., & Van Gemmert, A. W. A. (2013). Transfer occurs within the same limb when a learned skill requires the use
of different muscles to perform the task. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology,
35(Suppl.), S16.
Aiken, C. A., Pan, Z., & Van Gemmert, A. W. A. (2012). Control of a visuo-motor aiming task transfers within the dominant upper
limb. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts (Program No. 679.14), Online.
Pan, Z., & Van Gemmert, A. W. A. (2012). Parkinson’s disease patients may attend to benefits related to smoothness
and efficiency in bilateral transfer of learning. Society for Neuroscience Abstracts
(Program No. 755.12), Online.
Van Gemmert, A. W. A., Li, L., Prejean, P., Pan, Z., & Hondzinski, J. M. (2012). Long-term tai chi participation
benefits fine motor skill function of Parkinson’s disease patients. Journal of Sport
& Exercise Psychology, 34(Suppl.), S142.
Rose, K. M., Van Gemmert, A. W. A., Hondzinski, J. M., & Li, L. (2012). Asymmetry in Parkinson’s Disease is reflected
in the Timed Up and Go Test. The 59th American College of Sports Medicine Annual Conference.
San Francisco, California.
Hondzinski, J. M., Li, L., Pan, Z., Prejean, P., & Van Gemmert, A. W. A. (2012). Movement excursion explains associations between gross and fine motor functions
in older adults with and without Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Sport & Exercise
Psychology, 34(Suppl.), S88-S89.
Our faculty in Motor Behavior are a key part of the LSU Life Course & Aging Center,
had a major part in developing the new robotics minor and planning research grants
with Engineering and computer science, and collaborate within researchers off campus.