Comprehensive World Brain Mapping Course-Motor and Sensory Cortex Physiology

Video Transcription

Video Summary

In this video, Nico Hatsopoulos, a neuroscientist from the University of Chicago, discusses the cortical basis for motor control. He begins by describing the areas involved in controlling movement, including the parietal cortex, premotor areas, and prefrontal cortex. He then focuses on the motor cortex, specifically the primary motor cortex (M1) and primary somatosensory cortex (S1). He explains that the traditional homunculus model, which shows somatotopic representation of body parts, is incomplete and misleading. Instead, he argues that the motor cortex does not have a well-structured layout and does not represent specific zones for each digit of the hand or specific joints. However, he does acknowledge that there is some structure, with a central core representing distal appendages and a surrounding area representing proximal appendages. Hatsopoulos also discusses his own research on encoding movement in the motor cortex, specifically focusing on trajectory encoding. He presents evidence that neurons in the motor cortex do not represent static preferred directions but rather complex movement trajectories in space and time. He concludes by discussing the implications of his findings and thanking his lab members.

Asset Subtitle

Nicholas Hatsopoulos, PhD

Keywords

Nico Hatsopoulos

motor control

motor cortex

somatotopic representation

trajectory encoding

neurons