Distributed sensorimotor processing in the cortico-cerebellar system

How the brain represents, processes and stores information about the body and its surroundings is important for understanding what goes wrong during neurological disorders. Unfortunately, our understanding of brain function is poor, because information is distributed across neurons within and between different circuits, making these signals difficult to measure simultaneously. Using two novel optical microscopes to image and control brain activity, we will investigate how two major structures, the neocortex and cerebellum, work together to learn skilled tasks. This will allow us to compare how information is represented in these different brain structures and identify what information is shared between them. We will use these experimental measurements to build mathematical models of interconnected neocortical and cerebellar circuits, enabling us to understand and predict how they work together as a whole. This will provide an essential framework for understanding how cortico-cerebellar processing is altered in neurological disorders.