[CTN] CTN Seminar - December 2 - Jonathan Michaels

[Sue Ann Campbell]

Hello Everyone,

Our next CTN Seminar will be held next week

Tuesday, December 2 at 3:30 p.m.  in DC 1304

Speaker:  Jonathan A. Michaels, Neural Control & Computation Lab<https://www.ncclab.ca/>, York University

Title: Sensory expectations shape neural population dynamics in motor circuits

Abstract:
The neural basis of movement preparation has been extensively studied during self-initiated actions where motor cortical activity during preparation shows a lawful relationship to the parameters of the subsequent action. However, movements are regularly triggered or corrected based on sensory inputs caused by disturbances to the body. Since such disturbances are often predictable and since preparing for disturbances would make movements better, we hypothesized that expectations about sensory inputs also influence preparatory activity in motor circuits. Here we show that when humans and monkeys are probabilistically cued about the direction of future mechanical perturbations, they incorporate sensory expectations into their movement preparation and improve their corrective responses. Using high-density neural recordings, we establish that sensory expectations are widespread across the brain, including the motor cortical areas involved in preparing self-initiated actions. The geometry of these preparatory signals in the neural population state is simple, directly scaling with the probability of each perturbation direction. After perturbation onset, a condition-independent signal shifts the neural state leading to rapid responses that initially reflect sensory expectations. Based on neural networks coupled to a biomechanical model of the arm, we show that this neural geometry emerges only when sensory inputs signal that a perturbation has occurred before resolving the direction of the perturbation. Thus, just as preparatory activity sets the stage for self-initiated movement, it also configures motor circuits to respond efficiently to sensory inputs.

The paper associated with this talk recently appeared in Nature:

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-09690-9

Hope to see you there,

Sue Ann


_______________________________________________


Dr. Sue Ann Campbell (she/her)

Professor and University Research Chair

Department of Applied Mathematics & Centre for Theoretical Neuroscience<https://uwaterloo.ca/centre-for-theoretical-neuroscience/>

Associate Dean, Research, Faculty of Mathematics

University of Waterloo

Waterloo ON N2L 3G1

https://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/~sacampbe/

Past-President, Canadian Applied and Industrial Mathematics Society<https://caims.ca/>


I acknowledge that I live and work on the traditional territory of the Chonnonton, Anishinaabeg and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo main campus is located on the Haldimand tract, the land granted to the Six Nations that includes six miles on each side of the Grand River. Our active work toward reconciliation takes place across our campuses through research, learning, teaching, and community building, and is co-ordinated within the Office of Indigenous Relations.

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