Ohbayashi's Research Projects

Research

We investigate the neural mechanisms underlying motor plasticity through cutting-edge research based in Pittsburgh. Our flexible motor behavior relies on the ability to acquire new motor skills and adapt existing ones—abilities supported by neural plasticity.

1) Learning of Motor Skill

The acquisition and retention of skilled sequential movements are fundamental aspects of human behavior and are essential to nearly every voluntary action. Despite their importance, we still know relatively little about where and when plastic changes occur within cortical motor areas to support the learning and long-term maintenance of such skills. It is now well established that the frontal lobe contains multiple cortical motor areas, each of which has direct or indirect access to motoneurons. This organization suggests that different motor areas may make distinct contributions to motor skill learning. Our work examines the temporal evolution of learning and retention of skilled sequential movements across cortical motor areas.

2) Sensorimotor Adaptation

Motor adaptation enables adjustments to sustained environmental changes. By shifting visual feedback, we study how the nervous system recalibrates and realigns movement. These studies are conducted using animal models to uncover the neural basis of adaptation.

Selected Publications

Ohbayashi M. The Roles of the Cortical Motor Areas in Sequential Movements. Front Behav Neurosci. 2021;15:640659.

Ohbayashi M. Inhibition of protein synthesis in M1 of monkeys disrupts performance of sequential movements guided by memory. eLife. 2020.

Ohbayashi M, Picard N, Strick PL. Inactivation of the Dorsal Premotor Area Disrupts Internally Generated, But Not Visually Guided, Sequential Movements. J Neurosci. 2016.

Ohbayashi M, Ohki K, Miyashita Y. Conversion of working memory to motor sequence in the monkey premotor cortex. Science. 2003.

Tomita H, Ohbayashi M, et al. Top-down signal from prefrontal cortex in executive control of memory retrieval. Nature. 1999.

Members

Machiko Ohbayashi, Ph.D.
Moya Carrier
Jack Kettering

Former Member
Kayla Williams, now in Ph.D. program at University of Chicago

Contact

Machiko Ohbayashi, Ph.D.
Department of Neurobiology & Systems Neuroscience Center
University of Pittsburgh
4070 Biomedical Science Tower
3501 Fifth Ave, Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Email: machiko@pitt.edu