September 23, 2004

Neural Control of Coordinated Action

 

Welcome

Accomplishment of daily tasks depends upon interactions between individuals and their environment. These interactions require sensory processing leading to perception, and the development of internal representations of the external world by combining sensory information with cognitive processes like memory and attention. However, these high level processes are not the only end-point of sensory and cognitive processing. Information about the world must also be processed in order to produce behavior: coordinated motor acts. These actions form the basis for nearly all critical functions of living organisms: orientation, navigation, interaction with objects in the environment, communication. The control of movement, the integration of sensory information and the transformations required for coordination of complex behaviors, and mechanisms implemented by structures in the brainstem, cerebellum, cortex and basal ganglia in mediating these processes are critical functions of the healthy nervous system and often present the most debilitating deficits when lost due to neural damage or disease.

We are grateful to Mihail Chemiakin for allowing the use of his artwork.

Speakers

Head-eye interactions during visual orienting movements

Edward G. Freedman, Ph.D., University of Rochester

 

The reliability of oculomotor command signals carried by individual neurons

David L. Sparks, Ph.D., Baylor College of Medicine

 

The vestibulospinal pathways and their roles in controlling head movements

Greg Gdowski, Ph.D., University of Rochester

 

Coding of behavioral context in the supplementary motor area

Daeyeol Lee, Ph.D., Yale University

 

Single-Neuron Correlates of Overt and Covert Decision-Making Processes in Primate Dorsal Premotor Cortex

John F. Kalaska, Ph.D., University of Montreal

 

A role for the premotor cortex in lateralized choices of gaze, hand and target

Marc H. Schieber, M.D., Ph.D., University of Rochester

 

Useful signals from motor cortex

Andrew B. Schwartz, Ph.D., University of Pittsburgh

 

Diversity of signaling patterns of neurons in the globus pallidus

Martha Johnson Gdowski, Ph.D., University of Rochester

 

Basal Ganglia Output Activity in Parkinsonism and Dystonia

Jonathan W. Mink, M.D., Ph.D., University of Rochester

 

A cerebellar role in learning eye-hand coordination: Memory storage site, and performance error - "teacher" signals

W. Thomas Thach, M.D., Ph.D., Washington University