Movement is essential for our daily life, but many movements must first be learnt. We are interested in this process of motor learning.

areas

Research Areas

brain and spinal cord with motor regions highlighted. zoom in of one region showing cell type diversity within

created with Biorender

While many circuits of the motor system have been well delineated, we are just beginning to understand the diversity of cell types that constitute these circuits.

We aim to determine whether specific cell types have distinct roles during motor learning.

Furthermore, the changes present within these neurons at a molecular level and their contribution to neuronal plasticity have not been comprehensively examined.

We aim to characterize neuronal responses at the transcriptional and genomic level and to examine the contribution of specific facets of neuronal physiology to plasticity.

representative schematic of pyramidal neuron with zoom in of cellular pathway engaged

created with Biorender

Our overall goal is to contextualize our cellular and molecular studies within the motor circuit and system. This approach will allow us to extend our work to physiological changes that occur over age and instances of motor dysfunction and disease.

approaches

Approaches

  • Functional Imaging

  • UMAP of neuronal populations in M1

    single-cell omic approaches

  • cleared brain with fos staining

    Tissue clearing and whole brain mapping

  • mouse performing motor task

    Behavioral assays and optogenetics

Publications

preprints

Corticothalamic Neurons in Motor Cortex Have a Permissive Role in Motor Execution pdf
Carmona, L.M., Tun, L.T., Kim, A., Shiao, R., Kissner, M.D., Menon, V., and Costa, R.M.
bioRxiv, 2022

peer reviewed

Topographical and cell type-specific connectivity of rostral and caudal forelimb corticospinal neuron populations pdf
Carmona, L.M., Thomas, E.D., Smith, K., Tasic, B., Costa, R.M., and Nelson, A.
Cell Reports, 2024

Towards Cell and Subtype Resolved Functional Organization: Mouse as a Model for the Cortical Control of Movement pdf
Warriner, C.L., Fageiry, S.K., Carmona, L.M., and Miri, A.
Neuroscience, 2020

New insights into the evolutionary origins of the recombination-activating gene proteins and V(D)J recombination pdf
Carmona, L.M., and Schatz, D.G
FEBS, 2017

Collaboration of RAG2 with RAG1-like proteins during the evolution of V(D)J recombination pdf
Carmona, L.M., Fugmann, S.D., and Schatz, D.G.
Genes Dev, 2016

publications