Abbey S. Nydam (lab alumnus)

Position: Research Assistant, Former Honours Student

Phone: 0408 181 840

Research while in the Mattingley Lab

I work with Dr Mark Kamke to investigate factors that influence plasticity and excitability in the human brain. To do so, I use non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), to induce and measure plasticity in neurologically healthy individuals. Currently, we are investigating factors that influence excitability in the motor cortex induced by TMS and TDCS. I also have experience using neuro-imaging techniques such as electroencephalography (EEG), and behavioural methods such as eye-tracking, electromyography (EMG) and olfactometry.

Research interests

Noninvasive brain stimulation (using TMS and TDCS)
Cortical plasticity and excitability, particularly in the motor cortex
Learning: unconscious learning, statistical learning, prediction, Bayesian frameworks
Attention, capacity limitations of cognitive processing

Selected publications

Sale, M. V., Nydam, A. S., & Mattingley, J. B. (2017). Stimulus uncertainty enhances long-term potentiation-like plasticity in human motor cortex. Cortex, 88, 32-41. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2016.12.008

Kamke, M. R., Nydam, A. S., Sale, M. V., & Mattingley, J. B. (2016). Associative plasticity in the human motor cortex is enhanced by concurrently targeting separate muscle representations with excitatory and inhibitory protocols. Journal of Neurophysiology, 115(4), 2191-2198. doi: 10.1152/jn.00794.2015

Conference presentations

Sale, M., Nydam, A., Kamke, M., & Mattingley, J. (2014, July). Stimulus uncertainty enhances motor cortical plasticity induced with a paired associative stimulation paradigm. Poster presented at the XII International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience (ICON-XII), Brisbane, Australia. doi: 10.3389/conf.fnhum.2015.217.00336