Research Interests:

Using fMRI, I am currently investigating how a change in our ability to manipulate objects, as in the case of amputees, can alter how we perceive the environment that we act in, how behaviour is changed after loss of an upper-limb (e.g., biases to act within different fields of peripersonal space), and how plasticity impacts brain activity in regions responsible for reaching and grasp movements. Moreover, I am also interested in how individuals process tools over other categories of stimuli especially after they have been matched for low-level properties such as elongation or real-world size.

Selected Publications:

Squires, S. D., Macdonald, S. N., Culham, J. C., & Snow, J. C. (2016). Priming tool actions: Are real objects more effective primes than pictures?, Experimental Brain Research, 234(4), 963-76. doi: 10.1007/s00221-015-4518-z

Macdonald, S. N., Richards, E. D., & Desmarais, G. (2016). Impact of semantic similarity in novel associations: direct and indirect routes to action, Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 78(1), 37-43. doi:10.3758/s13414-015-1041-z

Macdonald, S. N., & Culham, J. C. (2015). Do human brain areas involved in visuomotor action show a preference for real tools over similar non-tools and does orientation matter? Neuropsychologia, 77, 35-41. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.08.004