9604629 Comer Most movements are oriented toward or away from specific objects in the environment. This project investigates how cells in the nervous system transform sensory signals entering the brain into coded commands that direct an organism's goal directed movements. The project accomplishes this by mapping the neural circuits connecting sensory systems to the command neurons controlling limb movement, by recording the responses of these command neurons to different types of sensory stimulation, and by selectively stimulating or blocking the activity of command neurons in the circuitry controlling movement. The results of these experiments provide information important to understanding how the nervous system controls goal-directed movement and should also implications for the design of robotic controllers and human prosthetic devices.
