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Seminar Series – “Topography of muscle coordination in sensorimotor cortex”

Event Details:
Seminar Flyer - Dylan Cooke

Summary:
How does the brain control motor behavior? I have shown that the motor cortex contains modules from which intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) can evoke naturalistic, coordinated movements that resemble feeding, reaching, running and defensive behaviors. As GABAergic drugs in the defensive module specifically modify flinches to air-puffs, it appears that these modules regulate or control complex behaviors. We want to study how such behaviors are learned and how they recover from injury, but first we must understand how coordination among muscles produces complex behaviors. In particular, we want to map the brain’s control of each muscle because overlap of muscle representations appears to be crucial to motor learning. In rats we made high-resolution maps of EMG activity from 16 muscles spanning the body. Muscle representations overlap substantially, with some sites activating at least twelve muscles. I will describe our ongoing analysis of this rich dataset and how we will link it to behavioral plasticity and rehabilitation.