Brief summary of research

From Neuron to Action and its Disorders

We try to understand how the brain controls our movements in the real world. We study the process of action generation at a single neuron level using animal models to understand how movements are processed in the brain. We also study actions of healthy people, as well as those with neurological disorders, such as cerebellar disorders, Parkinson’s disease or strokes. We look for building-blocks of motor control with multidisciplinary approaches. Our tools include various neurophysiological recording techniques (single unit recording, electromyography (EMG) and electro-encephalography (EEG)), brain stimulation, neuroimaging, analysis of movement kinematics and a large-scale modeling. We have two long-term goals: 1) to understand the basic function of the motor structures of the brain including the cerebellum, the basal ganglia, and the motor cortex; and 2) to understand how our brain controls our movements on the basis of the findings in 1).

“Through our research, we are trying tounderstand the brain.The brain was first created to control movement and extended to control higher brain functions.”

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Members

Laboratory Head Shinji Kakei

• Min Kyuengbo
• Takahiro Ishikawa
• Takeru Honda