This action funds an NSF Minority Postdoctoral Research Fellowship for FY2002. The goal of the fellowship is to prepare minority scientists for positions of scientific leadership in academia and industry. To attain this goal, the fellowship provides opportunities for postdoctoral training of the highest quality to recent doctoral recipients. This program is an effort by the NSF to increase the number of research scientists from underrepresented minority groups, thereby contributing to the future vitality of the Nation's scientific enterprise. It is expected that Fellows trained through these fellowships will play important roles in training of the future workforce.
The research and training plan for this fellowship is entitled "The role of the cerebellum in learning the proper timing and amplitude of skilled motor movements." The specific role of the cerebellum in learning motor movements is unclear. This research examines motor learning in the vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR), or VOR adaptation, of normal mice and PKCg mutant mice, which have abnormal input to cerebellar Purkinje cells. It compares VOR adaptation, patterns of Purkinje cell activity during learning, and those sufficient for learning, in these mice.
