W. Geoffrey Wright

Biography

After receiving a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Virginia Tech, 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 in graduate school. His masters research (Experimental Psychology, Northeastern University) and Ph.D. research (Cognitive Neuroscience, Brandeis University) focused on human perception of spatial orientation with support from NASA and the DoD. During his post-doctoral training in Munich, Germany and at Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, OR, he began working with various patient populations, including stroke, Parkinson's disease, vestibular loss, and neuropathy. He has investigated motor control, gait and balance, and perceptuo-motor disorders in both healthy and neurologically impaired individuals.

Research Interest

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 to shaping rehabilitation therapy. He is currently funded by the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (US Army Rapid Innovation Fund) to validate a device his team designed for assessing postural deficits in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) using virtual environments (VE) to manipulate visual input. He is also continuing research that has been funded by the Veterans Administration to investigate the neuromuscular origins of hypertonia in Parkinson's Disease using postural control and functional MRI prodecures.