Fax: 404.727.3157
Appointments: 404.727.3507
Faculty Bio
Medical School:
1972, MD, UCLA School of Medicine, Los Angeles, CA, Sherman Mellinkoff, MD
Doctorate:
1972, PhD (Neuroscience), UCLA, Los Angeles, CA, Joaquin Fuster, MD
Research Focus
Neurophysiology of motor control. Studies include the functional analysis of cortical and subcortical networks involved in the control of voluntary limb movements, particularly movements that are guided or instructed by visual information. Brain mapping studies are conducted both in humans and in nonhuman primates performing motor tasks that dissociate sensory, motor and cognitive variables implicated in the control of goal-directed movements. Functional imaging with positron emission tomography is used in the human studies to identify the neural substrates of motor processing at a regional or network level. These PET experiments are complemented by reversible inactivation studies using transcortical magnetic stimulation to block motor processing in discrete brain regions while subjects perform some of the same types of tasks. The TMS experiments attempt to determine which aspects of motor processing are dependent on which particular brain structures, testing hypotheses generated by the PET functional imaging studies. In nonhuman primates, chronic microelectrode recordings of behavior-correlated activity of individual neurons make it possible to extend the functional mapping process well beyond the spatial and temporal resolutions of the human PET and TMS studies.
Publications
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