Vitor Profeta

Vitor L. S. Profeta, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research associate at the Nebraska Athletic Performance Lab. Profeta earned his bachelor’s degree in Physical Education (2007) and his master’s degree in Sports Science (2009) at the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG – Brazil). He earned his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at the University of Connecticut (2017).

Dr. Profeta focuses on how motor control theories and models can be applied to enhance athletic performance and reduce the risk of injuries. His research interests include the contextual-dependence structural-functional organization of movements, the transferability of skills across training sets, and how individual differences in control and coordination account for differences in performance.

Selected Articles

• Profeta, V. L. S., Turvey, M. T. (2018). Bernstein’s levels of movement construction: A contemporary perspective. Human Movement Science, 57, 111-133. DOI: 10.1016/j.humov.2017.11.013.
• Frank, T. D., Profeta, V. L. S., Harrison, H. S. (2015). Interplay between order-parameter and system parameter dynamics: considerations on perceptual-cognitive-behavioral mode-mode transitions exhibiting positive and negative hysteresis and on response times. Journal of Biological Physics, 41(3), 257-292, DOI: 10.1007/s10867-015-9378-z.
• Fonseca, F. S., Benda, R. N., Profeta, V. L. S., Ugrinowitsch, H. (2012). Extensive practice improves adaptation to unpredictable perturbations in a sequential coincident timing task. Neuroscience Letters, 517(2), 123-127, DOI: 10.1016/j.neulet.2012.04.041.
• Ugrinowitsch, H., Fonseca, F. S., Carvalho, M. F. S. P., Profeta, V. L. S., Benda, R. N. (2011). Effects of the bandwidth KP on the learning of the volleyball tennis serve. Motriz: Revista de Educação Física, 17(1), 82-92, DOI: 10.5016/1980-6574.2011v17n1p82. (in Portuguese).

Professional Presentations

• Profeta, V. L. S. (2016, November). Human Movement from a Hierarchical-Homeokinetic Point of View. Towards a Homeokinetic Approach to Movement, Sports, and Physical activity, Storrs – CT, USA.
• Profeta, V. L. S. (2016, October). Can the global array support ecological-dynamical laws of coordination? Perception and Action Workshop: Implications of the global array for cognition, coordination, and rehabilitation, Storrs – CT, USA.
• Profeta, V. L. S. (2016, May). Re-reading Bernstein's levels of construction of movements. Perception and Action Workshop, Storrs – CT, USA, 2016.