Title: The Role of Cross-Area Coordination in Motor Learning
External Speakers: Professor Karunesh Ganguly at UCSF (http://gangulylab.org/index.html) and PhD Student Kate Derosier from Ganguly lab.

Date: Thursday, September 24th, 2020
Time: 3pm EDT
Zoom: https://columbiauniversity.zoom.us/j/92285278208?pwd=b1hKaHV6YXJUc2FKa3NZVytMWXZ0dz09  

Talk abstracts: 

Karunesh Ganguly will talk about the role of coordination across brain areas during motor learning and how sleep is critically involved. He will also speak about methods for assessing neural coordination and suggest that studying coordination through subspaces of neural spiking is perhaps an improvement over spiking coherence with LFP (local field potential). 

Kate Derosier will talk about her and Tess Veuthey's recent paper: 

Single-trial cross-area neural population dynamics during long-term skill learning

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-17902-1

Abstract:

Using simultaneous recordings of rodent motor (M1) and premotor (M2) cortex and computational methods, we show how cross-area activity patterns evolve during reach-to-grasp learning in rats. The emergence of reach-related modulation in cross-area activity correlates with skill acquisition, and single-trial modulation in cross-area activity predicts reaction time and reach duration. Local M2 neural activity precedes local M1 activity, supporting top–down hierarchy between the regions. M2 inactivation preferentially affects cross-area dynamics and behavior, with minimal disruption of local M1 dynamics. Together, these results indicate that cross-area population dynamics are necessary for learned motor skills.

Motor Club Slack Workspace:

motorclubworkspace.slack.com