Movement is an essential component of our daily lives. All kinds of movements, including locomotion, reaching for objects, communicating verbally, or even making subtle facial gestures require coordination across large numbers of muscles. The nervous system is able to perform these tasks in a rapid, precise and adaptable manner. Our lab investigates the mechanisms that generate the appropriate patterns of neural activity that underlie movement, and the consequences of damage or the malfunctioning of this system.
The motor cortex is considered the grand orchestrator of motor behavior. However, the motor cortex is not an autonomous structure but rather relies heavily on other brain areas to translate motor goals into actions. The motor cortex receives signals from other cortical and subcortical structures which contain information about the external environment and the internal state of the body. Processed information is then sent to the spinal circuitry which translates and transforms the descending motor commands into spatiotemporal signals to activate the muscles.
Our lab is interested in the interplay between local motor cortical computation and long-range descending and ascending connectivity. Specifically, we investigate (1) how descending motor cortical activity is translated into action by the spinal cord; (2) how long-range ascending inputs from subcortical structures gain a powerful impact on motor timing and coordination; and (3) the degree of universality of the control policy used by the system for controlling different effectors, such as face vs. hand.
We use advanced experimental techniques to probe the system which include simultaneous recordings from large groups of cells located at remote but connected sites of the motor system. By using electrophysiological, pharmacological and mechanical perturbations we identify long-range connectivity patterns and the information conveyed via these pathways, the structures of the local cortical circuitry and the events that occur when specific routes are reversibly blocked.
Our long-term goal is to identify how the microscopic structures of motor cortical circuitry dictate and shape macroscopic patterns of motor cortical activity and hence movement.
