A hallmark of motor control in human and non-human primates is the flexible and adaptive use of sensory information. In this talk, I will describe my lab's efforts to discover the computations and circuit-level mechanisms that underlie this ability. First, even simple, effortless, and well-practiced tasks such as reaching for an object are actually continually reshaped by sensory feedback. I will describe several mechanisms of movement-by-movement learning, and will discuss their role in maintaining accurate and precise movement control. Second, accurate movement requires knowledge of the state of ones own body and of objects in the environment. The computational principles of this ability are understood, but their neural underpinnings are only starting to be elucidated. I will describe our effort to link these levels of explanation. Lastly, these scientific advances have led us to develop new neurotechnologies and novel clinical applications, which I will also discuss.

Dr. Philip Sabes is a Professor of Physiology at UCSF, where he holds a Jack D. and DeLoris Lange Endowed Chair in Cell Physiology. His lab uses a combination of neurophysiology, behavior, and computational modeling to study sensorimotor integration and learning in human and non-human primates. This work is focused on the sensory basis of movement control and the relationship between computational models of motor behavior and the underlying neural circuits. In addition, Dr. Sabes and his lab are developing tools for harnessing sensorimotor plasticity for clinical applications such as neuroprosthetics. Dr. Sabes is the Director of the UCSF Sloan-Swartz Center for Theoretical Neurobiology and a founding member of the UC Berkeley-UCSF Center for Neural Engineering and Prosthetics.