Taking a closer look at the brain's representation of reaching and grasping movements
Body
The foundation of our work has been for many years, the study of the brain's representation of reaching and grasping movements. Begun using single electrodes in several brainstem areas, the cerebellum, and the motor cortex, it has evolved in the past decade to the use of multi-electrode arrays, chronically implanted in the primary and premotor cortices. We are interested in the relation of this activity to muscle activation, forces, and movement, how the cortical activity is affected by context, how it changes during learning, and how networks of neurons interact to generate the signals underlying movement.