This is a project to study how information about touch and body position, the so-called somatosensory system, is processed in the brain. Particularly, it addresses the issue of how somatosensory information is related to the control of movement. The inferior olive is a structure in the brain that is involved with control of movement. It receives somatosensory information directly and also has inputs from the cerebellum. In this project the neurons from the cerebellum and somatosensory receptors that terminate in the inferior olive are to be labeled with dyes so that they can be visualized in a microscope. This will permit their pathways to be traced, and will permit defining the organization of the inferior olive with regard to somatosensory information and movement control. The problem of how movements are controlled is not only scientifically very interesting, it has many practical applications in industrial, military and medical settings.
