2/1/2023 - Summer Research Fellowship (SURF) Student Wolfgang McLelland presents his research poster analyzing sensory loss & functional connectivity in specified cortexes. Wolfgang's research earned him the Research Advisory Committee Travel Award - 1st Place, selected from dozens of submissions.
2/1/2023 - SURF Student Eli Cosovan pictured next to his research poster on the neural mechanisms of tongue direction in natural feeding behavior.
2/1/2023 - SURF Student Kevin Huang presents his research poster on orofacial kinematics in healthy aging vs. loss of sensation.
Our Research
Cortical and Biomechanical Control of Orofacial Sensorimotor Behavior
At the intersection of neuroscience and biomechanics
Nothing happens until something moves, as Albert Einstein once said. And as I watch the graceful leap of a ballerina, the amazing finger coordination of a concert pianist, the great precision in timing and force of a tennis player, I often wonder why we move the way we move. It is the experience of this mystery that has motivated me to study the neuronal basis of sensorimotor control. And after all these years, I am ever more astonished to realize that these highly coordinated and skilled motions are a consequence of efficient “networking” among populations of cortical neurons.
Over many decades, the study of sensorimotor control of human behavior has been approached at different levels, e.g., biomechanics , neurophysiology, and computational modeling. Although each of these levels has provided unique contributions, the challenge remains to find a unifying elements for the proposed notions and theories, observed behavior, and the neurophysiology of the sensorimotor system.
–Fritzie Arce-McShane, PhD