hatsopoulos lab  

My research focuses on the neural basis of motor control and learning. I am investigating what features of motor behavior are encoded and how this information is represented in the collective activity of neuronal ensembles in the motor cortex. I am also interested in what way these representations change as motor learning occurs.To answer these questions, the electrical discharge of many motor cortical neurons is recorded on the statistical interactions among groups of neurons. The encoding properties of individual motor cortical neurons are being studied to determine how these single cell properties relate to higher-order representations involving groups of neurons. The possibility that changes in functional connectivity among neurons may occur during motor learning is also being explored.Finally, various decoding strategies are being developed by which the activities of neural ensembles can be used to predict the behavior of the animal. Ultimately, this research may lead to neural prosthetic technologies that will allow people with spinal injuries to use brain signals to control either a cursor on a computer screen, a robot arm, or even their own arm, thereby bypassing the injured spinal cord.