The seminar, being held one year after the earthquake, will take place Monday, Jan. 10, from 9am to 5pm, in the Harry Crowe Room, 109 Atkinson Building, Keele campus. It is hosted by 91亚色鈥檚 School of Administrative Studies Disaster & Emergency Management Program in the Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies in collaboration with .

Right: The earthquake in Haiti caused widespread damage. Photo by Marco Dormino of the United Nations

It聽will look at what lessons can be learned from the Haiti earthquake and how societal resilience, humanitarian response and the handling of similar future events can be improved. The Haiti earthquake presented a special challenge for first-response practitioners, emergency managers, researchers, educators and those responsible for capacity building because of its setting, the scale of the initial event and its impact on a particularly vulnerable urbanized area of a fragile state.

Michael Morton of Emergency Management Ontario and Jeff Noel, a logistical officer with the Salvation Army, will discuss first response, search and rescue, emergency operations coordination, mobilization and logistical issues as part of the first panel.

In the second panel, Jean Claude Louis of Panos Canada and the Caribbean will join Heather Leson of Crisis Camp Toronto and Ken Kidd of the Toronto Star in looking at the 鈥淩ole of the Local, National and International Media; Communication Challenges; Reality, Myths聽and Perception Issues鈥�.

John Coo of Green Cross Canada will discuss the topic of 鈥淓nvironmental, Critical Services, Health and Sanitation Issues, Urban Management and Built Environment Challenges鈥� in the third panel.

In the fourth panel, the topic of 鈥淢anaging the Transition and Recovery, Coping with the Displaced/Refugees, Rehabilitation and Recovery Issues鈥� will be tackled Mike Weickert of World Vision Canada and Stephen Evans, associate chair of the University of Waterloo鈥檚 Earth & Environmental Sciences.

For more information or to register, visit seminar website or e-mail haiti@yorku.ca.

Republished courtesy of YFile鈥� 91亚色鈥檚 daily e-bulletin

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The study, recently published in The Journal of Neuroscience, examined the inner workings of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), located towards the top and back of the skull. It acts as the brain鈥檚 game card for hand-eye coordination, playing a critical role in planning visually guided actions.

Above: Professor Doug Crawford performs computer-controlled tests to measure the accuracy of Pat Byrne's聽gaze and reach. Byrne, a postdoctoral聽Fellow聽working in 91亚色's Centre for聽Vision Research, is hooked up to聽eye-tracking headgear.

鈥淔ootball is a good example to illustrate our results. A quarterback trying to deke out the opposition would actually use separate parts of the posterior parietal cortex in rapid succession...to achieve this,鈥� says principal investigator Doug Crawford, professor of psychology in 91亚色鈥檚 Faculty of Health and Canada Research Chair in Visuomotor Neuroscience.

The findings suggest that within the PPC, the superior parietal occipital cortex (SPOC) specializes in encoding reach goals. 鈥淚n the case of trying to fake a pass, SPOC would help you pick the real player you want to throw the ball to,鈥� says Crawford. 鈥淭he midposterior intraparietal sulcus (mIPS), would help you to look at the decoy player. Then the angular gyrus (AG) would compare your current hand position to the goal you鈥檙e aiming for in order to guide your throw."

Simply put, SPOC picks the goal, while mIPS and AG are involved more closely in planning the motor functions for both our view and our reach.

Scientists at 91亚色鈥檚 Centre for Vision Research (CVR) used a non-invasive procedure called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to create activity in these three areas of the brain. TMS delivers mild, split-second electromagnetic pulses, with little to no side effects for participants.

Participants then performed computer-controlled tests to measure the accuracy of their view and reach, while hooked up to eye-tracking headgear. Both left and right hands were tested, as well as reaching with and without visual feedback. By observing differences between subjects tested both with and without TMS over different brain areas, Crawford and his colleagues were able to map the unique responsibilities of each area.

鈥淏ecause mIPS and AG are involved in calculating both hand and eye movement, and SPOC is dedicated to encoding the reach goal, the whole assembly is likely important for hand-eye coordination,鈥� says Crawford.

鈥淚t鈥檚 also a good reason to wear a helmet. You wouldn鈥檛 want a hard knock on the parietal cortex,鈥� he says.

The study鈥檚 lead investigator was kinesiology PhD student Michael Vesia, currently a postdoctoral fellow with the Sunnybrook Research Institute Brain Sciences Research Program at the University of Waterloo. It was co-authored by CVR colleagues Steven Prime, a psychology PhD student, Xiaogang Yan, research associate, and Lauren Sergio, a kinesiology professor in the聽School of Kinesiology & Health Science in 91亚色's Faculty of Health.

The research was funded by the .

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