Understanding how the brain uses sensory information to guide reaching and grasping movements

伸手、抓握和操纵物体是我们日常生活中至关重要的方面，这些都是毫不费力地完成的，往往被认为是理所当然的。然而，我们知道，这些功能需要相对较长的时间才能成熟（想想婴儿学习如何得到一个物体），而且它们可能会因大脑后顶叶皮质区域的损伤而受损。我们也知道这个区域有多个分支，但这些分支是如何相互作用，让感觉信息引导手臂和手部肌肉的，还不清楚。从细胞相互作用的角度发现这是如何发生的，可能对创造新技术（如假肢和自主机器人）产生深远的影响，并带来健康益处。

Reaching, grasping and manipulating objects are crucial aspects of our daily lives, which are performed so effortlessly that they tend to be taken for granted. We know however that these functions take a relatively long time to mature (think of a baby learning how to get an object), and that they can be impaired by brain lesions involving a region called the posterior parietal cortex. We also know that this region has multiple subdivisions, but how exactly these interact in allowing the sensory information to guide arm and hand muscles is unknown. Discovering how this happens in terms of cellular interaction can have profound implications for the creation of new technologies such as artificial limbs and autonomous robots, and result in health benefits.