Fritzie Arce-McShane

Dr. Fritzie Arce-McShane is an Associate Professor in the Department of Oral Health Sciences (School of Dentistry) and Graduate Program in Neuroscience in the University of Washington. She is also an Affiliate Scientist in the Neuroscience Division of the Washington National Primate Research Center. She received her Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy from the University of the Philippines, Master of Arts in Motor Learning from Columbia University in New York, PhD in Neuroscience from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, and completed postdoctoral training at the University of Chicago. The goal of her research is to expand the understanding of the principles of cortical and biomechanical control that guide oral sensorimotor behavior, such as the important and critical functions of feeding and speech, and how these are affected by learning, aging, and disease. Drawing inspiration from her clinical experience as a physical therapist with strong concentrations in movement science and neurocognitive rehabilitation, her research aims to support the development of preventive strategies, evaluation, and treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, sensorimotor disorders, orofacial pain, restoration of sensory feedback in brain-machine interfaces, and age-related dementias. Her laboratory employs a multifaceted methodology, integrating insights from psychophysics, biomechanics, neurophysiology, and computational modeling, to elucidate the intricate relationship between sensation and movement. Her methods includes recording brain activity using chronically implanted microelectrode arrays in multiple regions of the orofacial sensorimotor and prefrontal cortex simultaneously with 3D tracking of tongue and jaw movements using high-resolution biplanar videoradiography and the XROMM workflow (X-ray Reconstruction of Moving Morphology). Other techniques include receptive field mapping, intracortical microstimulation, electromyography, psychophysics, MRI and fMRI, CT for animation of bone models, histological analysis, and computational modeling.