Grant: Project Grant

This project tests the hypothesis that there is motor outflow from the human postcentral gyrus to the peripheral musculature that controls movements of the hands. Three individual projects will each examine this idea in different ways. Project 1 involves electrophysiological and neuroimaging tests to document the existence of postcentral efferent pathways in humans. Project 2 tests the idea that there is postcentral efferent control of movement. Project 3 is a test of the idea that postcentral efferent pathways are involved in human motor learning. Knowing whether there is motor outflow from postcentral cortex in humans and, if so, the nature of its involvement in movement and motor learning would let us better understand how movement control and learning are distributed throughout the brain and, potentially, enable us to exploit the presence of this efferent outflow to jump-start new learning following trauma or stroke.