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