Eric Vidoni, PhD

Eric Vidoni is a physical therapist licensed in Kansas and Missouri and Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Neurology at the University of Kansas Medical Center.

Eric is a Midwestern boy at heart; born in the Kansas wheat and raised amongst the corn of Illinois. His interest in movement began with his undergraduate coursework, culminating in a Bachelors of Science in Kinesiology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2001. After a year of working as a research coordinator studying visual attention and airport security screening at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at Illinois, he resumed his formal education at the University of Kansas Medical Center in the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences. There, Eric entered a joint PT/PhD program to receive both clinical and research training in physical rehabilitation with a particular emphasis on brain function. Under the mentorship of Dr. Lara Boyd, PT, PhD he became interested in how individuals learn new skills. Specifically, his dissertation work explored the role of sensation in learning new movements following brain damage. Because of his dual research and clinical perspectives, he has become interested in the greater role cognition plays in performing daily activities such as bathing, dressing or preparing a meal that are central to the view of ourselves as independent individuals. Graduating in January 2008, Eric will now be working on the KU Brain Aging study with Dr. Burns, using functional magnetic resonance imaging and other techniques to investigate changes in motor abilities and independence of daily function resulting from Alzheimer’s disease.