CAREER: Parietal Cortex and the Transformation of Spatial Cognition into Action

University Of California-San Diego, La Jolla CA

Investigators

Abstract

Humans and animals alike need to connect where they are in the world to the best choice of action to take. Much is known about brain mechanisms by which control of the musculature is accomplished as well as brain mechanisms by which an organism's position in an environment is encoded. How these control systems interact, however, is unknown. Recent findings suggest that the posterior parietal cortex is a brain structure that, by virtue of both its anatomy and physiology, can coordinate control of the musculature according to the spatial position that an organism occupies. This project will combine novel behavioral tasks, multiple single-neuron recording techniques, and temporary (focal) brain-inactivation techniques to determine if this is, indeed, the case. Furthermore, the project will determine the coding mechanism whereby perception of position in the world is transformed into a plan of action. The experiments are expected to show that the parietal cortex is responsible for the generation of "action-planning" signals that are found within the premotor cortex and that parietal cortex activity pulls sensory and motor systems into a common network such that sensory inputs can guide motor control in a fluid, efficient fashion. The work's importance lies in identifying the neural machinery responsible for utilizing complex cognitive abilities (mapping one's position in the world) to control the senses and musculature, thereby allowing for intelligent behavior. The results will be of importance to the further development of autonomous robots that utilize simulated neural networks and to the study of neurological disorders, such as autism, where efficient sequencing of actions based on environmental stimuli appears to be deficient. Results of the work will be disseminated through scientific publication and will form the basis for outreach projects wherein high school students are given the chance to practice neuroscience in a real-world setting.