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SUMMARY:Motor skill learning and execution in a distributed brain network
DTSTART:20190305T100000
DTEND:20190305T110000
DTSTAMP:20260408T085053Z
UID:9d1cd7ea1c152302a853c878730d3fec884f242d63b03e8b8566f0e9
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Steffen Wolff\, Harvard University\, USA.\nMost of our ever
 y-day behaviors are built from complex sequences of movements\, whether it
  is tying our shoes\, serving a tennis serve or playing the piano. The abi
 lity to perform such actions\, often with little mental effort\, depends o
 n the distributed motor network in our brains. While many individual compo
 nents of this network have been identified\, less is known about their spe
 cific roles and how they interact during learning and execution of complex
  motor skills. To address these questions in detail\, we developed a fully
  automated high-throughput behavioral training system as well as continuou
 s long-term electrophysiological recordings. Using these technical advance
 s\, I am training rats in a timed lever-pressing task that produces comple
 x and highly stereotyped movement sequences. I am probing the contribution
 s of individual brain regions and their inter-connections by recording and
  manipulating their activities. In my talk\, I will show that the basal ga
 nglia\, specifically the dorsolateral striatum (DLS)\, play a central role
  in the acquisition and execution of motor skills. I will further describe
  the specific roles of cortical and thalamic input to the DLS in these pro
 cesses and suggest a circuit-level model of skill learning in which motor 
 cortex guides plasticity at thalamo-striatal synapses.\n\nBio\nAfter compl
 eting a B.Sc. and a M.Sc. in Molecular Biotechnology at the Ruprecht-Karls
  University in Heidelberg\, Germany\, and at Johns Hopkins University in B
 altimore\, USA\, Steffen Wolff joined the lab of Prof. Andreas Lüthi at 
 the Friedrich Miescher Institute in Basel\, Switzerland\, for his PhD. His
  thesis work was on the role of genetically- and anatomically-defined neur
 onal populations in the amygdala and in cortex during fear learning. After
  receiving his PhD\, Steffen Wolff became a postdoctoral fellow with Prof.
  Bence Ölveczky at Harvard University in Cambridge\, USA. He is currently
  finishing his interrogation of the circuitry underlying learning and exec
 ution of complex motor skills\, focusing on the interactions between the m
 otor cortex\, the basal ganglia and the thalamus.\n\nVideo transmission us
 ing zoom : https://epfl.zoom.us/j/9946495775\n 
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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