Top-Down Control of Sensorimotor Performance by Prefrontal Cortex

John B. Pierce Laboratory, Incorporated, New Haven CT

Investigators

Abstract

This project will examine how a part of the brain, called the prefrontal cortex, is involved in controlling behavior. The prefrontal cortex controls behavior much like a business executive controls a company. "Top-down" control signals are sent from the prefrontal cortex to lower brain areas, such as the motor cortex, to control when animals respond to external stimuli. These signals might convey information to the motor cortex about the expected timing of stimuli or might simply control the timing of motor action by sending a "go" signal to the motor cortex. To investigate this issue, recordings of neural activity will be made in the prefrontal and motor cortices as animals learn to time stimuli in a behavioral task. Anatomical methods will be used to determine if conversations between the prefrontal and motor cortices occur through a special part of the motor cortex, called the premotor cortex. Intellectual merit: This project will be one of the first to examine interactions between neurons in prefrontal and motor areas of the cerebral cortex by recording in the two areas simultaneously. This project is also unique in that interactions these areas are studied during learning. Finally, the project will be the first to resolve if the rodent premotor cortex receives information from the prefrontal cortex and thus might provide the first evidence that rodents have a cortical area that is analogous to the premotor cortex of higher animals, including human beings. Broader impact: All experimental protocols and procedures will be made available to the neuroscience community and the general public. A novel Linux distribution will be developed that contains programs needed to reproduce this research. Undergraduate students will support these efforts. Students in Yale's Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) program will take part in the project and will be supervised by graduate students working in the PI's lab, who will acquire training that goes beyond normal graduate student research activities. In addition, the PI has initiated a neuroscience program for young children through a local public library and is taking part in the Neuroscientist-Teacher Partner Program of the Society for Neuroscience. All materials from the library program and the PI's interactions with local teachers will be made available at http://spikelab.jbpierce.org.