Mechanisms of Degradation across the Lifespan: The Role of Descending Tract Function on Age-Related Sensory-Motor Deficits
The human brain has multiple pathways that descend down the spinal cord to control the body as well as to modulate sensory information that comes in from the body. Most of our understanding of each pathway's role comes from animal model research. However, human pathways are more evolved, specialized, and differ from other animals; they even differ from other mammals, including non-human primates. Recent technological advances in the field of non-invasive brain stimulation have provided the opportunity to now study these pathways safely in humans. This project aims, first, to get a better understanding of each of those pathways in humans; second, to quantify how age-related degradation affects the pathways (test them in an aged model), and third, how other pathways may compensate for age-related degradation in order to maintain motor function.
