Our research focusses on how the spatio-temporal organization of activity in neuronal populations encodes normal and pathological movement in vivo. For now, this work has concentrated on the cerebellum - a structure that is essential for motor coordination but whose mechanisms of function have remained elusive. Our belief is that the cerebellum will provide a defining example of how to relate the physiology, anatomy, and molecular biology of individual neurons to the means whereby neuronal populations produce sensory and motor function.

Our studies using highly-trained behaving animals have produced high-resolution spatial maps of neuronal activity within the cerebellar cortex. During a skilled movement, neuronal populations become rhythmically active and tend to fire synchronously in highly-defined groupings. These groupings change rapidly - with millisecond precision - and recur when repetitive movements are performed. Our experiments have allowed the conclusion that the temporal organization of movement is coded within populations of cerebellar neurons but not by the individual neurons themselves.

Our studies of genetically and hypoxia-induced myoclonic animals have indicated that pathologically hypersynchronous activity within the olivocerebellar system may underlie the shocklike and rhythmic movements that characterize the clinical syndrome of myoclonus. From the viewpoint of population function, we are determining the means whereby drugs that alter the spatio-temporal organization of cerebellar activity can ameliorate the severity of myoclonic events.