Award Details:
Award Type: Catalyst
Award #: C-098
Proposal Title: Interactions Between Motor Cortex and Striatum Underlying Movement Initiation in Mammals
PI(s): Nicholas Hatsopoulos (UChicago) and Andrew Miri (NU)
Award Amount: $243,221.00
Application Cycle: Round 28 (Fall 2019)
Award Start Date: May 1, 2020
Award End Date: April 30, 2022
Abstract:
Our project examines how interactions between two regions of the mammalian motor system – the primary motor cortex (M1) and striatum – underlie movement initiation. M1 drives muscle activity through projections to motor centers in brainstem and spinal cord. M1 also projects to striatum, the input structure of the basal ganglia, initiating a loop by which the basal ganglia process cortical signals and influence cortical activity through a relay in the thalamus. Interactions between M1 and striatum are thought to be central to movement initiation, as evidenced by initiation deficits seen in Parkinson’s disease. Yet the nature of these interactions has remained out of experimental reach. We will take a nontraditional, comparative approach, performing neural recordings in mice and marmosets. We will combine novel paradigms, in which animals freely engage in self-initiated, natural movements, with cutting-edge electrode arrays for large-scale, multi-area recording to unravel how M1 and striatum cooperate to trigger movement.