1) Visuotopic,
somatotopic and somatomotor organization: spatial distribution of
neurons of posterior parietal cortex of non-human primates under
visual, somatic and motor stimulations. Is it a distribution
anatomically or functionally organized?
2) Visuo-motor integration in posterior parietal cortex: visual
control of grasp action with extracellular recording techniques.
Effect on the neuronal discharge of the spatial localization of the
target, of ocular and limb movements.
3) Reach an object in the space: reach movement encoding,
manipulation and role of posterior parietal cortex in the
parieto-frontal circuits for movements encoding and on-line
correction of the movements.
4) Digital processing in support of basic research: 2D and 3D
reconstructions of brains and programming and simulation models of
neural circuits involved in visuo-motor integration.
https://site.unibo.it/fattori-lab/en/research-interests-1/neural-circuits
1) Study of visual, somatic and motor representation in the
posterior parietal cortex of non-human primates. Starting from the
study of the bioelectric activity of neurons of the posterior
parietal cortex (PPC) of non-human primates, using microelectrodic
recordings, it is evaluated the spatial distribution of neurons
studied on two-dimensional brain map. The aim of the research is to
check the existence of ordered distributions (anatomic and/or
functional) of neurons on the basis of their specific functional
properties in order to verify the possible role of different
clusters of cells and then of the cortical areas in which are
located.
2) Visuo-motor
integration in posterior parietal cortex. The study regards some areas of the PPC: area
V6A and PEc. The aim of this study is to evaluate how this cortical
region is involved in the visuo-motor control of superior limb
movements to reach an object in peripersonal space. Microelectrodic
recordings of bioelectric activity of single cell are executed.
During experimental sessions visual and somatosensory stimulations
are performed, the modulation of neuronal activity by oculomotor
activity and superior limb motor activity, and the influence of
different spatial localizations of the reach target are evaluated
on the neural activity.
https://site.unibo.it/fattori-lab/en/research-interests-1/neuroscience-of-the-medial-ppc
3)
Reaching an object in the peripersonal space. Bioelectric neural
activity of PPC areas is strongly modulated by different type of
movements finalized to reach and grasp objects in the peripersonal
space. For example, the neural firing rate consequent reaching
and/or grasping of “interesting” object (food) is different with
respect a “not interesting” object (pliers). Again, reach and/or
grasp objects with a certain shape and dimension requires a
different way of grasping (type of opening of hand or rotation of
specific joints). The anatomical study follows the functional study
in order to outline the cortical circuit that involves the PPC.
Injections of neuronal tracers are executed in the cortical areas
functionally studied in order to identify the cortical connections
and to clarify the cortico-cortical circuits for the coordination
of gestures of prehension.
4)
Digital processing to support basic research. The digital
reconstruction of cerebral structures is a fundamental tool to
visualize and therefore to compare results obtained with different
methods (functional or anatomical) or by different experimental
subjects (monkey or human). Such investigations simulate off-line
the experimental sessions in order to obtain an overview of
experiments. Together with these two- and three-dimensional brain
reconstructions, mathematic and computer programming permit to
simulate the neuronal events and the cortical circuits, to provide
a neural out-put in response to a specific input decided by the
experimenter, to verify “models” of neural network from
experimental data acquired. This is a new and exciting horizon of
neurophysiology with a great potential of application in the field
of development of the artificial intelligence and
robots.
