Encoding of Cortical Information in the Coordination of Reach to Grasp and Feeding
2008 Seed Grant
Nicholas Hatsopoulos, Ph.D.
University of Chicago
The proposed research will investigate the neural basis of coordination in reach-to-grasp and
feeding/chewing systems. Behaviorally we will study reaching and grasping for food, and-to-
mouth feeding, ingestion, and mastication. We will then investigate how single neurons and
spatiotemporal patterns of neuronal activity in the orofacial area of primary motor cortex (MIof),
the arm area of primary motor cortex (MIa), and ventral premotor cortex (PMv) encode these
behaviors. We propose to study both reach-grasp and feeding systems because by comparing
cortical encoding of movement and muscle activity in the two systems we aim to identify
common principles underlying cortical control of behavior in particular coordination within and
between systems. The feeding and reach-to-grasp systems are especially appropriate for
studies of coordination because visually guided manual food acquisition (insect predation or
grasping of small fruits) is an ancient adaptive complex in primates (Roos & Martin, 2006) and
mechanisms of coordination between the systems are therefore likely to be well-developed.
