Corey B. Hart, Ph.D.
Instructor, Dept. Neurobiology and Anatomy, Drexel University College of Medicine
Email: corey.hart@drexelmed.edu

Neural control of movement

Biography

Dr. Corey B. Hart received his Ph.D. from the Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine. He did his first postdoctoral training with Dr. Simon F. Giszter at Drexel University College of Medicine. He is currently research faculty in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy at Drexel University College of Medicine.

Research and Interest

• Neural circuitry underlying motor control
• Statistical mechanics of spinal interneurons
• Information theoretic approaches to understanding neural signal processing

Research Summary

The simplification of the complex constraints imposed by orderly movement poses a fundamental difficulty for the neural control of movement. Every movement represents a potential search problem for the nervous system: it must determine which combination of joints/muscles to use in order to effect a particular task. Complicating this picture is the problem of the serial ordering of behavior. Reducing the size of the space the nervous system must search for a solution represents one potential strategy. Modularity, or the re-use of functional and structural motor strategies within a variety of behavioral contexts can help reduce the size of this space. Behavioral modules may then be deployed in the context of a “motor grammar” to simplify the serial ordering problem.

Dr. Hart is currently attempting to identify the neural basis of modular motor patterns in the bullfrog spinal cord, explore the statistical rules governing transitions from one motor pattern to another in sequenced movements, and assemble a grammar of such transitions. He is also interested in determining/describing the evolutionary stability of such modular schemes. Information theoretic analysis of electrophysiological recordings, pharmacologic manipulation of feedback and glycinergic inhibition, as well as computer modeling of motor control schemata are integrated and deployed toward these ends.

Selected Publications

1. Giszter, S.F. ,Hart C.B., Silfies S., Spinal cord modularity, its origins in evolution and motor development, and its possible relevance to low back pain in man. Experimental Brain Research (Accepted 9/9/09)

2. Kargo, W.J., Ramakrishnan, A., Hart, C.B., Rome, L.C., Giszter, S.F., A simple experimentally-based model using proprioceptive regulation of motor primitives captures adjusted trajectory formation in spinal frogs. J Neurophysiol. (Accepted 7/11/09)

3. Hart, C.B. and Giszter S.F. A Neural Basis for Motor Primitives in the Spinal Cord.. J Neurosci. (Accepted pending revision 3/27/09)

4. Giszter S.F., Patil V and Hart C.B. (2007) Primitives, Premotor Drives and Pattern Generation: a combined Computational and Neuroethological Perspective. Prog. Brain Res. 165:325-349

5. Giszter S.F., Hart C.B., Udoekwere U.I., Markin S., and Barbe C. 2005. A real-time system for small animal neurorobotics at spinal or cortical levels. Neural Engineering. Conference Proceedings, 2nd International IEEE EMBS Conference on March 16-19, pgs. 450-453.

6. Hart, C.B. and Giszter S.F. Modular Premotor Drives and Unit Bursts as Primitives for Frog Motor Behaviors. J Neurosci. 2004 Jun 2;24(22):5269-82

7. Dear SP, and Hart CB., (1999) Evidence for neural wavelet packet computations. Neurocomputing 26-27: 655-661 (1999)

8. Dear, S.P. and Hart, C.B. Synchronized Cortical Potentials and Wavelet Packets: A Potential Mechanism for Perceptual Binding and Conveying Information. Brain and Language, 66(1):201-31 1999.

9. Chen, Tar-pin, Yang, X, Sourivong, P., Kamimura, K., Viescas, A.J., C. J. Chen, Y., Curley, J.D., Phares D.J., Hall H. E., Dayton, P. A., Hart, C.B., and Wang, J. T., Fabrication, Superconducting Tc and Charge Transfer of VNx, NbNx and TaNx Foils. Phys. Lett. A, 217:167 1996.