# Spike timing codes for motor control

> **NIH NIH R01** · EMORY UNIVERSITY · 2021 · $337,669

## Abstract

A central goal of neuroscience is to understand how patterns of neural activity in the brain control behavior. In
principle, neurons can encode information via their firing rates, the precise timing of their spikes, or both.
However, nearly all prior studies of motor systems have relied exclusively on spike rates to investigate how the
brain controls behavior. We recently demonstrated that in songbird vocal motor cortex, spike timing – down to
millisecond-scale differences in spike patterning – is far more informative about upcoming behavior than is spike
rate. Although this suggests that variations in cortical spike timing could modulate behavior, it is unknown
whether precise cortical spike timing drives a similarly precise code downstream in motor neurons and muscle
tissue, or indeed whether variations in motor neuron spike timing are capable of modifying behavior. The
proposed experiments will combine innovative behavioral, physiological, and computational techniques
to understand how the nervous system uses precisely timed patterns of electrical activity to regulate the
acoustics of vocal output in songbirds. Our long-term goal is to understand how spiking activity in the brain
controls behavior. The objective of this proposal is to determine which properties of motor spiking drive variations
in behavior in control of vocalizations in songbirds. Our central hypothesis is that the brain controls behavior by
precisely (down to a precision of a few milliseconds) modulating spike timing. This hypothesis will be tested in
three specific Aims. In Aim 1, we will use a newly developed electrode system to study spiking activity from
muscle tissue (i.e., the spikes of individual motor units, each of which consists muscle fibers innervated by a
single motor neuron) in vocalizing songbirds to determine the timescale of neuromuscular control. In Aim 2, we
will use innovative in vivo, in vitro, and ex vivo techniques to determine whether spike-timing differences
observed in muscle fibers affect motor output. In Aim 3, we will examine how precise firing patterns are
coordinated across multiple muscles. All three Aims will tightly integrate experimental studies and computational
analyses to identify specific spike timing patterns that most strongly influence behavior and to generate and test
hypotheses about the biomechanical bases of precise motor control. The rationale for these studies is that they
will upend long-held notions that cortical motor control is based solely on spike rate codes and establish a broadly
applicable framework for analyzing timing-based spike codes both within and beyond the motor system.
Furthermore, our findings and techniques may significantly contribute to the improvement of neural prosthetic
devices by showing how decoding algorithms might make use of spike timing in addition to the rate information
commonly used in current approaches.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10112963
- **Project number:** 5R01NS099375-05
- **Recipient organization:** EMORY UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Samuel Sober
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $337,669
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-03-01 → 2023-02-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10112963

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10112963, Spike timing codes for motor control (5R01NS099375-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10112963. Licensed CC0.

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