David Ostry, Ph.D.

Senior Scientist, Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, Connecticut

Professor, Department of Psychology, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec

Education

PhD University of Toronto, 1977

MASc University of Toronto, 1971

Research Interest

I am interested in understanding how the brain changes with experience. My specific focus is on the sensory and motor networks of the human brain, for which I use speech production and voluntary limb movement as experimental models. My studies use robots in combination with behavioral and physiological techniques to assess motor function and the characteristics of motor learning. My most recent work deals with the idea that learning does not affect sensory and motor systems in isolation. Rather, motor learning changes sensory systems, and perceptual learning changes movement and motor networks in the brain.

Representative Publications

Bernardi NF, Darainy M, Ostry DJ (2015) Somatosensory contribution to the initial stages of human motor learning. J Neurosci in press.

Vahdat S, Darainy M, Milner TE, Ostry DJ (2011) Functionally specific changes in resting-state sensorimotor networks following motor learning. J Neurosci 31: 16907-16915.

Ostry DJ, Darainy M, Mattar AAG, Wong J, Gribble PL (2010) Somatosensory plasticity and motor learning. J Neurosci 30: 5384-5393.

Ito T, Tiede M, Ostry DJ (2009) Somatosensory function in speech perception. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 106: 1245-1248.

Tremblay S, Shiller DM, Ostry DJ (2003) Somatosensory basis of speech production. Nature 423: 866-869.

Supported Grants

NIH NICHD R01 Training Induced Plasticity in Human Motor and Sensory Systems, D Ostry (PI)

NIH NIDCD R01 Speech Motor Learning and Sensory Plasticity in Children and Adults, D Ostry (PI)