Richard E. Poppele, PhD

We study sensory-motor integration by analyzing the neural representations of proprioceptive sensory information in the spinal cord and cerebellum. Our experimental approach involves the use of multiregression analysis of single neuron activity with respect to a variety of limb parameters during imposed and self-initiated movements of the cat hindlimb.

Our results show that both limb mechanics and polysynaptic circuitry in the spinal cord play important roles in generating complex signals that encode the position and movement of the hindlimb in terms of whole-limb geometric variables, such as limb axis length and orientation, rather than as descriptors of individual joint angles or specific muscle states.