Faculty

W. Geoffrey Wright
Ph.D.

After receiving a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from VPI&SU in Blacksburg, VA, Dr. Wright spent 4 years as an officer in the USAF doing satellite engineering and operations. He then redirected his interests from hardware-in-space to humans-in- space, by getting an M.A. in Experimental Psychology (Northeastern University, 1997) and Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience (Brandeis University, 2002) with a focus of interest on human perception of spatial orientation, research largely funded by NASA and the DoD. During his post- doctoral training in Munich, Germany and at OHSU in Portland, OR, he began working with various patient populations, including stroke, Parkinson's disease, vestibular loss, and neuropathy. With these patient groups his research focused on motor control, gait and balance, and perceptuo-motor disorders.

Dr. Wright's research goals at Temple are to continue studying the central nervous system in individuals with impairment to motor control, balance, and gait, with the intention of applying knowledge about sensorimotor integration in the central nervous system to shaping rehabilitation therapy. Specifically, one line of research involves the work he has done using virtual environments
(VE) to manipulate visual input. By applying VE techniques to rehabilitation he hopes to evaluate VE immersion on balance and motor behavior and assess ways to benefit the rehabilitation of individuals with impairment.

Publications:
Wright WG, Gurfinkel VS, Nutt J, Horak F, Cordo PJ (2007).
Axial hypertonicity in Parkinson's disease: Direct measurements of trunk and hip torque. Exp Neurol. [Epub ahead of print].

Wright WG, Horak F (2007). Interaction of posture and conscious perception of gravitational vertical and surface horizontal. Exp Brain Res. 182(3):321-32.

Wright WG, Gurfinkel VS, King L, Horak F (2007). Parkinson’s disease shows perceptuomotor asymmetry unrelated to motor symptoms. Neurosci Lett 417(1):10-15.

Wright WG, DiZio P, Lackner JR. (2006). Apparent self-motion in two visual contexts: Dissociable mechanisms underlie perception. J Vest Res 16:23-28.

Wright WG, Glasauer S. (2006) Subjective somatosensory vertical during dynamic tilt is dependent on task, inertial condition, and multisensory concordance. Exp Brain Res 172 (3): 310-321.

Ivanenko YP, Wright WG, Gurfinkel VS, Horak FB, Cordo PJ
(2006) Interaction of involuntary post-contraction activity with locomotor movements. Exp Brain Res 169(2):255-60.

Wright WG, DiZio P, Lackner JR. (2005) Vertical linear self- motion perception during virtual visual and inertial
stimulation: More than weighted summation of sensory inputs.
J Vest Res 15(4): 185-195.

Wright WG, Glasauer S (2003). Haptic subjective vertical shows context dependence: Task and vision play a role during dynamic tilt stimulation. Ann NY Acad Sci. 1004: 531-5.

Bryant DJ, Wright WG (1999). How body asymmetries determine accessibility in spatial frameworks. Q J Exp Psych, 52 (2):487-508.