BME Faculty Member Search: Scott Tyler Albert: Expanding neural resilience to sensorimotor perturbations

Brains are made to withstand disruption. When confronted by an external perturbation, we seamlessly adapt our movement patterns to remain accurate and precise. Or when neural tissue dies, our nervous system gradually adjusts to restore motor control. But this resilience is limited; whether in the face of an external disturbance, or internal disorder, we can never completely adapt, sometimes leading to profound chronic impairment. To elucidate the cause of this ceiling on motor adaptation, we will consider a model that treats adaptation as a balancing of error-based updating and obligatory forgetting. We will use this framework to design strategies that can boost the capacity of subconscious learning systems. Further, we will explore how the presence of parallel systems for adaptation can alter the point at which learning saturates. Finally, we will uncover the neural basis for motor recovery in a model of reaching and grasping in the rodent. Optogenetic perturbation to the sensorimotor cortex completely arrests the ability to move the limb, but with repeated exposure, a profound functional recovery presumes. To identify its source, we will examine dynamics in key motor areas using invasive electrode recordings as well as functional MRI. Surprisingly, we find that the restoration of behavior is supported by a network switching event, where past centers of motor control are deactivated alongside a simultaneous recruitment of the intact cortex on the other side of the brain.

Address: Haultain Building, (Rear of) 170 College Street*, Room 410 

*If entering through the main stairwell of the Mining Building, there is a bridge that connects to the Haultain building at the 2^nd level of the stairwell