Time: 10:30-12:00 on Tues.,Mar.18, 2025

Venue：U6-059,Biomedicine Hall

Speaker: Dr. Samuel Sober

Host: Dr. Mu Zhou

Title: Spiking codes for skilled motor control

Abstract ：

Neurons coordinate patterns of muscle activity to produce an astonishing variety of behaviors. However, the biological and computational bases of sensorimotor control remain mysterious, in part due to a lack of experimental hardware and computational frameworks for examining motor signals. To address these challenges, my group combines neurophysiological, computational, and engineering approaches to understand motor control across species and behaviors. My talk will provide an overview of three projects that seek to expand our understanding of the neural control of complex movements. First, studies of vocal production in songbirds reveal how precise neural and muscular codes regulate expert vocal performance and emerge during sensorimotor learning as young birds first lean to sing. Second, to accelerate these projects in our own group and across the motor neuroscience community, we have created electrode tools and analysis pipelines for measuring and/or manipulating muscle activity at cellular resolution (single motor units) in songbirds, insects, mice, rats, and primates. We are currently disseminating these resources to the global research community via  CAMBER (camber.emory.edu). Finally, I will survey our recent work on the neuromuscular control of mouse locomotion, which quantifies how the nervous system flexibly modulates of limb movements across different terrains and walking speeds.

Biography：

Sam Sober is an Associate Professor of Biology at Emory University. His research combines behavioral, computational, and electrophysiological methods to investigate the neural basis of skill learning across species. Dr. Sober directs several international neuroscience collaborations, including the Simons-Emory International Consortium on Motor Control as well as the Collaboration on motor planning, execution and resilience (COMPERE). Dr. Sober also serves as the Director of the Center for Advance Motor Bioengineering and Research (CAMBER; camber.emory.edu), which disseminates novel neuroscience technology to the global neuroscience community.

After undergraduate studies in neuroscience at Wesleyan University, Dr. Sober completed a PhD in neuroscience at the University of California, San Francisco in the lab of Dr. Philip Sabes. He subsequently completed a postdoctoral fellowship in songbird motor control with Dr. Michael Brainard, also at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Sober began his lab at Emory in 2010. Since then he has receive awards including the McKnight Foundation Award for Technological Innovations in Neuroscience, an HHMI Gilliam Fellowship for Advanced Study, an NIH/NINDS Landis Award for Outstanding Mentorship, and a Winship Distinguished Research Professorship.