PLEASE NOTE:
- This seminar is IN PERSON ONLY in room U1204, Level 12, Sir Michael Uren Hub at Imperial College London’s White City campus.
- Refreshments will be served immediately after this seminar in room U1205.
Title:
Spiking codes for skilled motor control
Abstract:
Neurons coordinate patterns of muscle activity to produce an astonishing variety of behaviours. However, the biological and computational bases of sensorimotor control remain mysterious, in part due to a lack of experimental hardware and computational frameworks for examining motor signals. To address these challenges, my group combines neurophysiological, computational, and engineering approaches to understand motor control across species and behaviours.
My talk will provide an overview of three projects that seek to expand our understanding of the neural control of complex movements. First, studies of vocal production in songbirds reveal how precise neural and muscular codes regulate expert vocal performance and emerge during sensorimotor learning as young birds first learn to sing. Second, to accelerate these projects in our own group and across the motor neuroscience community, we have created electrode tools and analysis pipelines for measuring and/or manipulating muscle activity at cellular resolution (single motor units) in songbirds, insects, mice, rats, and primates. We are currently disseminating these resources to the global research community via CAMBER (camber.emory.edu).
Finally, I will survey our recent work on the neuromuscular control of mouse locomotion, which quantifies how the nervous system flexibly modulates limb movements across different terrains and walking speeds.
Efforts will be made to record this seminar if the speaker permits.