| Abstract No.: | 313 |
| Country: | Canada |
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| Title: | WHY EVERYTHING WE THOUGHT WE KNEW ABOUT THE MOTOR CORTEX COULD BE WRONG: MOTOR CONTROL IN THE ERA OF OPTIMAL CONTROL |
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| Authors/Affiliations: | Steve Scott
Queen's University, Laboratory of Integrative Motor Behavior (LIMB), Centre for Neuroscience Studies, Depts of Anatomy, Cell Biology, Medicine, Kingston, ON, Canada |
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| Content: | Primary motor cortex (MI) is a key component of the volitional motor system providing the largest contribution to the corticospinal tract and receiving input from many cortical and subcortical structures. The most common approach for interpreting MI function has been based on the notion of sensorimotor transformations, focusing attention on experiments that identify which coordinate frames best describe neural activity in MI. However, myriad coordinate frames or neural representations have been observed illustrating correlations with spatial goals, hand motion, joint motion, muscular torque, muscular power and EMG activity. Are we learning anything from simply identifying what neuron’s ‘code’? The focus of my talk will be to provide an alternate approach for interpreting MI function based on optimal feedback control. I will show how this conceptual framework is consistent with many aspects of neural processing in MI including the importance of sensory feedback, dramatic shifts in neural ‘coding’ across behaviours and the intimate link between MI activity and the properties of the musculoskeletal system. |
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