Aaron Batista, a Bioengineering and Neuroscience professor from the University of Pittsburgh, speaks in the second installment of guest speakers for the Boston Action Club.  The study of motor control in humans is a field with incisive experimental methods, elegant and powerfully explanatory theories, and rich, well-controlled data. And on the other hand, there’s primate neurophysiology. We use far simpler behavioral paradigms and more rudimentary characterizations of behavior, and the advantage that we do have – windows into neural activity – are cloudy and rather small. Thus, it is legitimate to question, “Can insights from neurophysiology change how we think about behavior?” I will attempt to offer two examples of how insights from neurophysiology might yield new perspectives on behavior. First, we will ask, “How can the memories of two separate motor skills peacefully coexist in motor cortex?” and second, “How do internal states affect motor performance and neural population activity?”.

Virtual Meeting – Zoom Link
https://northeastern.zoom.us/j/92867869946?pwd=VTA5R1EwRmZKUjdSeHRpYXpVM09Kdz09
Meeting ID: 928 6786 9946
Passcode: 103234