Dr Nick Holmes PhD

Dr Nick Holmes

School of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences
Associate Professor in Motor Control and Rehabilitation

Dr Nick Holmes runs The Hand Laboratory which studies the coordination and control of hand and body movements and the human somatosensory system, particularly the perception of touch on the hands. His main methods are transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electromyography (EMG), motion tracking and psychophysics. He enjoys doing statistics and produces a science news podcast called the error bar.

Qualifications

BSc Psychology & Neuroscience

MSc Neuroscience

D.Phil Neuroscience

Biography

After a PhD in the experimental psychology of multisensory perception in Oxford, Dr Nick Holmes spent four years as a postdoctoral researcher in Lyon, France and Jerusalem, Israel. He then returned to the UK in 2009 for a lectureship in psychology at the University of Reading, then moved to an Assistant Professorship in Nottingham in 2015, and an Associate Professorship in Birmingham in 2023.

Teaching

Clinical Neuroscience & Rehabilitation

Postgraduate supervision

Currently supervising one PhD student in their final year.

Available to supervise PhDs in motor control, lifespan development, and somatosensation, particular those using brain stimulation (TMS), electromyography and behavioural methods.

Research

Coordination and control of hand and body movements

Human somatosensory system, particularly the perception of touch on the hands

Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), electromyography (EMG), motion tracking and psychophysics

Statistical methods in psychology and neuroscience

Other activities

Member of the Experimental Psychology Society

Publications

Recent publications

Book

Holmes, N (ed.) 2023, Somatosensory Research Methods. Neuromethods, vol. 196, 1 edn, Humana Press, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3068-6

Article

Di Chiaro, NV & Holmes, NP 2024, 'Flanker interference at both stimulus and response levels decreases with age', Experimental Brain Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-023-06773-9

Holmes, NP, Di chiaro, NV, Crowe, EM, Marson, B, Göbel, K, Gaigalas, D, Jay, T, Lockett, AV, Powell, ES, Zeni, S & Reader, AT 2024, 'Transcranial magnetic stimulation over supramarginal gyrus stimulates primary motor cortex directly and impairs manual dexterity: Implications for TMS focality', Journal of Neurophysiology. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00369.2023

French, B, Chiaro, NVD & Holmes, NP 2022, 'Hand posture, but not vision of the hand, affects tactile spatial resolution in the grating orientation discrimination task', Experimental Brain Research, vol. 240, no. 10, pp. 2715-2723. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06450-3

Holmes, NP, Spence, C & Rossetti, Y 2022, 'No self-advantage in recognizing photographs of one’s own hand: experimental and meta-analytic evidence', Experimental Brain Research, vol. 240, no. 9, pp. 2221-2233. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06385-9

Holmes, NP, Tamè, L, Beeching, P, Medford, M, Rakova, M, Stuart, A & Zeni, S 2019, 'Locating primary somatosensory cortex in human brain stimulation studies: experimental evidence', Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 121, no. 1, pp. 366-344. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00641.2018

Holmes, NP & Tamè, L 2019, 'Locating primary somatosensory cortex in human brain stimulation studies: systematic review and meta-analytic evidence', Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 121, no. 1, pp. 152-162. https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00614.2018

Daly, I, Blanchard, C & Holmes, NP 2018, 'Cortical excitability correlates with the event-related desynchronization during brain–computer interface control', Journal of Neural Engineering, vol. 15, pp. 26022. https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2552/aa9c8c

Reader, AT & Holmes, NP 2018, 'Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the left posterior middle temporal gyrus reduces wrist velocity during emblematic hand gesture imitation', Brain Topography, vol. 32, pp. 332–341. https://doi.org/10.31219/osf.io/xjb4k

Chapter

Holmes, N & Tamè, L 2023, Detection, discrimination & localisation: The psychophysics of touch. in N Holmes (ed.), Somatosensory Research Methods. 1 edn, Neuromethods, vol. 196, Humana Press, New York, pp. 3-33. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3068-6_1

Tamè, L & Holmes, N 2023, Neurostimulation in tactile perception. in N Holmes (ed.), Somatosensory Research Methods. 1 edn, Neuromethods, vol. 196, Humana Press, New York, pp. 451-482. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-0716-3068-6_20

Comment/debate

Corneille, O, Havemann, J, Henderson, EL, IJzerman, H, Hussey, I, Orban de Xivry, J-J, Jussim, L, Holmes, NP, Pilacinski, A, Beffara, B, Carroll, H, Outa, NO, Lush, P & Lotter, LD 2023, 'Beware ‘persuasive communication devices’ when writing and reading scientific articles', eLife, vol. 12, :e88654. https://doi.org/10.7554/elife.88654

Dyke, K & Holmes, N 2023, 'Interpreting and analysing measures of motor inhibition in Tourette research and beyond', Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology. https://doi.org/10.1111/dmcn.15605

Holmes, NP 2022, 'Reply to Frassinetti (2022): assessing all the available evidence on discriminating photographs of our own hands', Experimental Brain Research, vol. 240, no. 9, pp. 2239–2240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06426-3

Preprint

Corneille, O, Beffara, B, Carroll, H, Havemann, J, Henderson, EL, Holmes, NP, Hussey, I, IJzerman, H, Jussim, L, Lotter, LD, Lush, P, Xivry, J-JOD, Outa, NO & Pilacinski, A 2023 'Reflecting on the use of persuasive communication devices in academic writing' PsyArXiv. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/zh2rd

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