The ability to move in an automatic or a goal-directed manner is a crucial function for many living organisms to survive and interact efficiently with their environments. Movements generation depend on the coordinated activity of motor centres that are distributed in the cortex, the basal ganglia, the cerebellum, and the brainstem but that, altogether, shape the descending motor commands sent to the spinal cord which will then execute the appropriate movements by controlling the activity of motoneurons. Any alteration in these systems and/or their interaction will impair the flow of information leading to disastrous motor disorders. In this CAJAL course, we will not only discuss the common organization of motor centres across species (from lamprey to primate) but also the neuronal mechanism and dynamics that underlie spontaneous and voluntary movements as well as how pathological alteration of these activities can lead to detrimental motor performances and disease state.
The goal of this CAJAL course is to instruct promising young neuroscientists to the advanced scientific concepts established in the field of motor control. We will present the latest discoveries that has been made in different species that shed light on how voluntary and goal-directed movements are generated. We will also describe the computational advances and analysis method that has pushed the limit of understanding movement generation.
Course directors
- Claire Wyart (Paris Brain Institute, France)
- Rune Berg (University of Copenhagen, Denmark)
- Nicolas Mallet (University of Bordeaux, France)
Brice de la Crompe – Freiburg University, Germany
Roberto de la Torre Martinez – Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Amanda Jacob – Emory University, USA
Graziana Gatto – Emory University, USA
Kristen Frenzel– Emory University, USA
Xinyu Jia – Paris Brain Institute, France
Kevin Fidelin – Paris Brain Institute, France
Marco Romanoto – Paris Brain Institute, France
Salif Komi – University of Copenhagen, Denmark
August Winther – University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Emeline Pierrieau – CNRS, Bordeaux University, France
Lise Guilhemsang – CNRS, Bordeaux University
Marc Deffains – CNRS, Bordeaux University
Arthur Leblois – CNRS, Bordeaux University
Carmen Guerrero Marquez – CNRS, Bordeaux University
Florina Toma – Institute of Science and Technology, Austria
Filipa Barros – Champalimaud Centre, Portugal
Ian Duguid– University of Edinburgh, UK
The course will feature a series of honorary lectures by two of the 2022 Brain Prize winners, keynote lectures, and hands-on expert workshops covering experimental sessions and data analysis. Keynote lecturers will introduce their respective fields and share their latest exciting discoveries. Expert workshops, led by a select group of instructors, will provide in-depth, practical training.
Participants will receive hands-on training on state-of-the-art methods applied to the study of motor control in the field including motor tracking, optogenetics manipulation, calcium imaging, high-density electrophysiology recording and data analysis. Prior to the course, instructors will work closely with students to design and plan the detailed experiments conducted during the miniproject, ensuring a tailored and enriching learning experience. Each student will have the opportunity to present their research through short communications and a poster session. Additionally, students will showcase the results of their miniprojects conducted during the workshop.
Throughout the course, students will have numerous opportunities to build their scientific network and engage with course directors, keynote speakers, instructors, and peers.
The course will be an intensive 3-week theoretical and practical course with two main goals:
1) Teaching students the theoretical foundation of the techniques (in week 1 and 2).
2) Give them enough hands-on experience to create an experimental mini-project (week 1) that will be carried out (in weeks 2 and 3) so they can establish these methods when they get back to their labs.
– Stereotaxic surgery: viral vector injection, cranial windows, fiber optic, and miniscope implantation.
– In vivo one-color and dual-color calcium imaging
– High-density in vivo electrophysiological recordings using Neuropixel probes.
– Ex vivo and in vivo patch clamp recordings
– Building a brain-computer interface to decode movement
– Muscle fibers recordings using high-density Myomatrix arrays
– Using open-source tools to build motor behavioral apparatus.
– In vivo optogenetic manipulations during motor behavior
– Motor behavior in zebrafish larva and rodents
– Modelling the motor system & Data analysis
Seminal Lecture
Réjean Dubuc – Université de Montréal, Canada
Honorary lectures from Brain Prize Winners
Sylvia Arber – Basel University, Switzerland
Ole Kiehn – University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Keynote Speakers
David McLean – Northwestern University, USA
Lora Sweeney – Institute of Science and Technology A., Austria
Jonathan Whitlock – KISN, Norway
Camille Jeunet – INCIA CNRS, Bordeaux University, France
Marie-Laure Welter – Paris Brain Institute, France
Joaquim Alves da Silva – Champalimaud CU, Portugal
Gilad Silberberg – Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
Claire Meehan – University of Copenhagen, Denmark
Ian Duguid – University of Edinburgh, UK
Samuel Sober, Emory University, USA