Foto del docente

Rossella Breveglieri

Associate Professor

Department of Biomedical and Neuromotor Sciences

Academic discipline: BIO/09 Physiology

Research

Keywords: prehension acts mathematical models visuomotor control reaching movements eye-hand interactions posterior parietal cortex

1) Neural coding of visual and somatosensory information in the posterior parietal cortex 2) Neural coding of oculomotor information in the posterior parietal cortex 3) Coding of prehension movements in the posterior parietal cortex. 4) Mathematical modeling of neuronal data 5) Set up of a real time rig of bioelectrical activity  6) Reference frame of neurons of the posterior parietal cortex during reaching movements.


1) Visuomotor control I am interested in understanding the cortical mechanisms of visuo-motor integration. Each time a prehension movement occurs, visual information is used to guide the hand toward the target and to interact with it. Recent data indicate that cortical areas positioned at the border between visual and somatosensory systems, namely areas V6A and PEc, contain both visual and somatomotor cells the neural activity of which is correlated with prehension movements. The aim of this research is to study the functional features of this two types of neurons and their possible roles in the process of visuo-motor integration. 
Another research interest is the development of computational models simulating V6A neural activity during a visuomotor task. In particular, this model will test the frequency bands of the neural signal and will check whether the behavioural state of the animal and the direction of arm movement can be evaluated by the spectral power. I m also interested in finding a mathematical model which can reproduce the observed V6A modulations.
2) Functional and anatomical study of the medial parieto-occipital cortex.  I am interested in studying the functional properties of neurons in the medial parieto-occipital cortex, namely areas V6, V6A and PEc. I want also to check the role of these areas in the context of visuomotor behavior.
I am also interested in studing the cortical circuits in which the areas located in this part of the brain are involved. To obtain this result, injection of neuronal tracers into the different areas of this region of the brain and look for labelled material on brain sections are necessary. Cortical areas connected with the injected areas are recognized on the histological material. 2D and 3D brain reconstructions allowed  to better recognize locations of labelled material, and then to better reconstruct the cortical circuits.

Latest news

At the moment no news are available.