I am interested in understanding the brain mechanisms underlying motor control. For my PhD study, I examined the peripheral process which take place when subject plan voluntary movements. To address this question, I carried out behavioural experiments in humans and animals; and used brain signals to assess the coupling between central and peripheral processes via recruitment of small size motor units during motor planning. I found an early recruitment of small (but not larger) motor units during the delay period. This recruitment was spatially specific and correlated with the reaction time. To explain these findings, I tested the accumulator model as a linking hypothesis to study initiation of hand and eye movements and extended this framework to study recruitment of motor units in different task contexts during motor preparation. 

Currently, at ELSC, I am interested in the organizational principles of the cerebellar-thalamo-cortical (CTC) circuitry and its role in the adaptive control of voluntary movements. Specifically, I am studying how cerebellar signals shape motor cortical activity when animals need to adapt to external perturbations. In addition, I am studying the mechanisms which lead to an increased in executional motor noise when cerebellar input is lost.