Dynamic organization of motor cortical neural activities in learning control tasks

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The objective of the proposed research is to examine adaptation in rat?s motor cortical neural activities as the rat learns to perform a directional control task by trial and error to derive his control strategy. The approach is to use experimental and computational modeling to test a hypothesis that a dynamic model based on motor cortical neural activities is developed internally as the rat learns to succeed in the task. Single cell chronic cortical recordings will be utilized to collect neurophysiological data as the rat performs his selective lever pressing in a Skinner box. Intellectual merit. The proposed research makes use of a well defined control task and electrophysiological data to examine the integration of perception and control, cortical plasticity, spike coding/decoding, and the causal relationship between neural cortical representation and intelligent behaviors, all of which are at the center of scientific debate in areas such as cognitive neuroscience, neurophysiology, psychology, and neuroengineering. Broad impact. New knowledge gained through this study can help reverse engineer robust controllers or robots such as brain machine interface devices to for sophisticated sensory motor integration. Additionally, nano-circuits may be designed to replace/provide remedy for deficient neural circuits in patients with perceptual-motor impairment. The PI will continue efforts in recruiting female undergraduate and graduate students to participate in the research and thus providing them access to frontier fields of science and engineering. The PI will also continue efforts in developing computational software and lecture materials using latest neuroscientific findings for use in the classroom.