Olveczky Lab
Principal Investigator: Bence P Olveczky
Institution: Harvard University (Cambridge, MA)
Primary Subfield: Neuroscience
Recruitment Status: Inquire for rotation/fellowship opportunities
Research Focus
Summary/Abstract The brain evolved to move the body, i.e., to implement sensorimotor control. Understanding the brain, then, is inextricably linked to understanding how it coordinates the joints and muscles of the body to generate competent behavior in dynamic and unpredictable environments in the service of goals. A tantilizing consequence of this is that understanding sensorimotor control will shed light on overall brain organizational and computational principles, including, potentially, higher-level cognition, which evolved much more recently by adapting the circuits already in place to control movement. This promise has not yet been realized, however, because standard approaches to studying motor control seek to reduce complexity by, for example, isolating simple circuits, studying artificial tasks, or constraining movements. These approaches thus avoid the sine qua non of motor control in biology: multiple interacting brain regions, multiple simultaneous goals, and multiple muscle coordinations, all in the presence of many sources of noise and sensory delays. Here, we propose to embrace this complexity rather than reduce it and are enabled to do so through the use of 'virtual…
Active NIH Awards
- 5U01NS136507-03: Understanding Sensorimotor Control Through Realistic Neuro-Biomechanical Simulation (2026)
- 5R01NS099323-10: Neural Circuits Underlying the Acquisition and Control of Motor Skills (2026)
- 5U01NS136507-02: Understanding Sensorimotor Control Through Realistic Neuro-Biomechanical Simulation (2025)
- 5R01NS099323-09: Neural Circuits Underlying the Acquisition and Control of Motor Skills (2025)
- 1U01NS136507-01: Understanding Sensorimotor Control Through Realistic Neuro-Biomechanical Simulation (2024)
Explore 700+ US Biology Labs on FindBioLabs.com