Sensory and Motor Systems
Author: Joaquín Alejo Quintana | Email: quintana.joaquin.alejo@gmail.com
Joaquín Alejo Quintana1°, Leonardo Molano Ramírez1°,María Soledad Espósito1°
1° Neurobiology of Movement Laboratory, Medical Physics Department, Atomi Center Bariloche
It is classically believed that learning and memory consolidation occurred exclusively in evolutionarily recent brain regions, such as the cerebral cortex, the hippocampus, amygdala and cerebellum. For motor memories in particular, it is considered that these processes involve the motor cortex, the basal ganglia and the cerebellum, assigning a mere executive role to the brainstem regions. However, our project postulates that the formation of new motor skills requires plastic changes in centers of the brainstem, such as the Mesencephalic Locomotor Region (MLR), in order to adapt the motor command to the new requirements of the environment. Our previous studies suggest a crucial role of the MLR in this process. Nowadays, our work aims to strengthen these findings by investigating the underlying molecular, cellular, and circuit mechanisms of motor memory consolidation in the MLR, through the analysis of the activation of memory-specific signaling pathways, and functional biophysical and synaptic changes