Tag: Sensory and Motor Systems

A “Conscious” Loss of Balance: Directing Attention to Movement Can Impair the Cortical Response to Postural Perturbations

“Trying too hard” can interfere with skilled movement, such as sports and music playing. Postural control can similarly suffer when conscious attention is directed toward it (“conscious movement processing”; CMP). However, the neural mechanisms through which CMP influences balance remain poorly understood. We explored the effects of CMP on electroencephalographic (EEG) perturbation-evoked cortical responses and… Continue reading A “Conscious” Loss of Balance: Directing Attention to Movement Can Impair the Cortical Response to Postural Perturbations

Developmental Spike Timing-Dependent Long-Term Depression Requires Astrocyte D-Serine at L2/3-L2/3 Synapses of the Mouse Somatosensory Cortex

Spike timing-dependent plasticity (STDP) is a learning rule important for synaptic refinement and for learning and memory during development. While different forms of presynaptic t-LTD have been deeply investigated, little is known about the mechanisms of somatosensory cortex postsynaptic t-LTD. In the present work, we investigated the requirements and mechanisms for induction of developmental spike… Continue reading Developmental Spike Timing-Dependent Long-Term Depression Requires Astrocyte D-Serine at L2/3-L2/3 Synapses of the Mouse Somatosensory Cortex

[Review] Multiple system atrophy: advances in pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment

Multiple system atrophy is an adult-onset, sporadic, and progressive neurodegenerative disease. People with this disorder report a wide range of motor and non-motor symptoms. Overlap in the clinical presentation of multiple system atrophy with other movement disorders (eg, Parkinson’s disease and progressive supranuclear palsy) is a concern for accurate and timely diagnosis. Over the past… Continue reading [Review] Multiple system atrophy: advances in pathophysiology, diagnosis, and treatment

Spatiotemporal Mapping of Auditory Onsets during Speech Production

The human auditory cortex is organized according to the timing and spectral characteristics of speech sounds during speech perception. During listening, the posterior superior temporal gyrus is organized according to onset responses, which segment acoustic boundaries in speech, and sustained responses, which further process phonological content. When we speak, the auditory system is actively processing… Continue reading Spatiotemporal Mapping of Auditory Onsets during Speech Production

Kernels of Motor Memory Formation: Temporal Generalization in Bimanual Adaptation

In daily life, we coordinate both simultaneous and sequential bimanual movements to manipulate objects. Our ability to rapidly account for different object dynamics suggests there are neural mechanisms to quickly deal with them. Here we investigate how actions of one arm can serve as a contextual cue for the other arm and facilitate adaptation. Specifically,… Continue reading Kernels of Motor Memory Formation: Temporal Generalization in Bimanual Adaptation

The dorsolateral striatum encodes a temporal basis for the organization of behavior

To behave adaptively, the brain must register temporal structure in the environment and use it to organize behavior at multiple timescales. The basal ganglia (BG) are thought to play a key role in such capabilities, learning behavioral programs or policies that associate states, actions, and rewards through time. In particular, the sensorimotor region of the main… Continue reading The dorsolateral striatum encodes a temporal basis for the organization of behavior

Stability of cross-sensory input to primary somatosensory cortex across experience

Kato and Bruno show that, despite responding to sounds, rodent primary somatosensory cortex (S1) encodes neither the identity of pure auditory stimuli nor simultaneous auditory-tactile stimulus pairs. Moreover, this insensitivity to auditory and audio-tactile stimulus identity remains unchanged even following prolonged passive exposure to audio-tactile correlations and reward-reinforced behavioral training with audio-tactile stimuli.

Encoding of Vibrotactile Stimuli by Mechanoreceptors in Rodent Glabrous Skin

Somatosensory coding in rodents has been mostly studied in the whisker system and hairy skin, whereas the function of low-threshold mechanoreceptors (LTMRs) in the rodent glabrous skin has received scant attention, unlike in primates where the glabrous skin has been the focus. The relative activation of different LTMR subtypes carries information about vibrotactile stimuli, as… Continue reading Encoding of Vibrotactile Stimuli by Mechanoreceptors in Rodent Glabrous Skin

When muscles work out, they help neurons to grow, a new study shows

There’s no doubt that exercise does a body good. Regular activity not only strengthens muscles but can bolster our bones, blood vessels, and immune system. Now, MIT engineers have found that exercise can also have benefits at the level of individual neurons. They observed that when muscles contract during exercise, they release a soup of… Continue reading When muscles work out, they help neurons to grow, a new study shows