What we do
We constantly generate skillful arm movements that allow us to interact with our environment in an optimal way, from reaching for the alarm clock in the morning to waving to a friend across the street.
The control strategy behind these movements depends on the goal of the action, how it was learned, and the context in which it's produced. Actions that require high spatial accuracy rely on feedback control, in which the motor system integrates sensory information to update motor commands as the movement unfolds. In contrast, fast, pre-planned actions, or actions that are spatially unconstrained, often rely on feedforward control, in which sensory feedback plays little or no role in shaping the ongoing command.
Our lab uses modern systems neuroscience tools to investigate how these control strategies are implemented in the brain's sensorimotor circuitry. In particular, we study how higher-order areas — sensorimotor cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum — integrate sensory feedback from ascending pathways and route their commands through distinct descending pathways to generate actions under different control strategies.
Our long-term goal is to apply this mechanistic understanding to rehabilitation and therapeutic approaches following stroke, spinal cord injury, and peripheral injuries.
How we do it
We use novel behavior paradigms in which head-fixed mice perform reaching movements using feedback or feedforward control strategies. To dissect the underlying neural circuitry, we combine these behaviors with intersectional anatomical mapping, precise neural circuit and muscle recordings, pathway-specific manipulations, and computational analysis.
Our impact
Our research aims to uncover circuit-level principles of sensorimotor control that can be applied towards novel rehabilitation and therapeutic approaches to enhance anatomical and functional reorganization following stroke, spinal cord injury, and peripheral injuries.
