There is experimental evidence of varying correlation among the elements of the neuromuscular system over the course of the reach-and-grasp task. Several neuromuscular disorders are accompanied by anomalies in muscular coupling during the task. The aim of this study was to investigate if modifications in correlations and clustering can be detected in the Local Field Potential (LFP) recordings of the motor cortex during the task. To this end, we analyzed the LFP recordings from a previously published study on monkeys which performed a reach-and-grasp task for targets with a vertical or horizontal orientation. LFP signals were recorded from the motor and premotor cortex of macaque monkeys as they performed the task. We found very robust changes in the correlations of the multielectrode LFP recordings which corresponded to task epochs. Mean LFP correlation increased significantly during reaching and then decreased during grasp. This pattern was very robust for both left and right arm reaches irrespective of t...

Mara Dierssen is a senior scientist at the Centre for Biomedical Research on Rare Diseases and the president of the Spanish Society for Neuroscience. She shares her insight about the challenges women face in neuroscience from her experience working and advancing in the field, and she offers advice to other women pursuing a career in neuroscience.

The FENS-SfN Summer School on Neurodevelopmental Psychiatric Disorders took place June 22-28, 2014, in Bertinoro, Italy. Erika Forbes, PhD, from the University of Pittsburgh talks about Neural Reward Circuitry: Typical Development, and Role in Adolescent Depression and Substance Use.

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