Gordon MG Shepherd, MD, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Physiology, Feinberg School of Medicine, Northwestern University
The mammalian motor cortex enables purposive volitional movements, but in contrast to the primary sensory cortices the synaptic circuit organization of this part of brain has been mostly terra incognita. Recent findings are beginning to reveal the local and long-range input-output circuits of corticospinal and other excitatory neurons in mouse motor cortex, and the ways in which these circuits may represent system-specific variations on a common plan.