BMI Progress Reports 2021 // Prof. M. Mathis's Lab, Steffen Schneider: Understanding cortical contributions to learning and control

Volitional control of limb movements requires that neural circuits both generate motor commands to drive muscles, and receive sensory feedback from the periphery to compute the state of the body. Yet despite evidence that motor cortex (M1) is required for dexterous movements, and forelimb sensory cortex (S1) is required for motor learning and adaptation, a clear understanding of the neural dynamics that enable control and learning across these regions remains elusive. In particular, less is known about representations in forelimb S1 neurons of rodents. In this talk, I will discuss preliminary results obtained by 2-photon imaging across S1 and M1 in mice learning a skilled joystick task. I will discuss machine learning tools for neural and behavioral analysis to investigate tuning properties and limb state dependencies in S1 and M1.