Former MSc student Markus Lenizky and Professor Meehan published their new manuscript, “The effects of verbal and spatial working memory on short- and long-latency sensorimotor circuits in the motor cortex” in the peer-reviewed journal PLoS One.
The manuscript demonstrated the interaction between cognition and sensorimotor integration by quantifying a phenomenon known as afferent inhibition. Afferent inhibition probes different short and relatively longer sensorimotor circuits that converge on neurons in the motor cortex to shape the outgoing commands to the muscles. Markus demonstrated that only one of the studied sensorimotor circuits was sensitive to verbal working demands, while none were sensitive to spatial working memory. The dissociation of the different sensorimotor networks, coupled with the SCiLL lab’s past work demonstrates that these converging sensorimotor circuits provide distinct bits of the sensory puzzle to facilitate context-appropriate skilled actions.