Michele A. Basso, Ph. D

Assistant Professor of Physiology

michele@physiology.wisc.edu

Trainer in the Follwing Programs

  • Physiology
  • Molecular & Cellular Pharmacology

Awards and Honors

  • Not Available

Research Interest: Neural basis of cognition and voluntary movement Basso Lab

My laboratory is interested in understanding the neural basis of higher order processes or cognition. Because the execution of voluntary actions usually involves processes such as target selection, learning, memory, planning and expectation, motor systems are well suited to serve as model systems in which to study these processes. Therefore, we investigate neural processes leading up to the execution of movements of the eyes, in particular, those eye movements that lead to rapid changes in the line of sight - saccades.

We have a multi-technique approach to the study of these processes. First, we record electrical activity of single neurons while the subjects perform eye movement tasks designed to tap into cognitive processes. Second, we activate or inactivate particular regions of the brain to produce behaviors or interfere with ongoing behaviors and neural processing. Finally, because damage to certain brain regions produces profound clinical disorders such as Parkinson's disease and Huntington's disease, we study eye movements of both healthy and diseased human subjects to further our understanding of the role these structures play in both cognition and in producing the debilitating effects of these disorders.

Figure: The activity of substantia nigra pars reticulata neurons predicts the certainty of saccades. In this task, a subject views a tangent screen upon which 8 possible stimuli appear.

Later in time, one of the stimuli dims indicating it as the saccade goal. In this task, the same sacade target is identified repeatedly on every trial. The spatial arrangement of the screen the subject views is shown on the left. The temporal arangement along with a schematic representation of eye position is at the top.

Each tick is an action potential recorded from a basal ganglia output nucleus neuron (the substantia nigra pars reticulata). The line through the ticks is the average of the activity across the trials (spike density function).

In the first set of 10 trials (yellow) the neuron decreased slightly when the array appeared and decreased more dramicatically when the target was identified and at the time of the saccadic eye movement.

In the later set of trials (cyan), as the subject learned that the same saccade would be made, the initial decrease in activity was more pronounced. This example shows that this neuron reflects which saccade the subject intends to make and also how certain it is to make it.

Recent Publications: Articles on PubMed

  • Basso MA. (2007) Introduction. Neurosci Biobehav Rev. PMID 17870165

  • Basso MA and Liu P. (2007). Context-dependent effects of substantia nigra stimulation on eye movements. J Neurophysiol. 97:4129-4142. PMID 17392414

  • Smith JJ, Hadzic V, Li X, Liu P, Day T, Utter A, Kim B, Washington IM, and Basso MA. (2006). Objective measures of health and well-being in laboratory rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta). J Med Primatol. 35:388-396. PMID 17214668

  • Utter AA and Basso MA. (2007). The basal ganglia: An overview of circuits and function.
    Neurosci Biobehav Rev. [Epub ahead of print] PMID 17202023

  • Li X, Kim B and Basso MA. (2006). Transient pauses in delay-period activity of superior colliculus neurons. J Neurophysiol. 95:2252-2264. PMID 16394072

  • Li X and Basso MA. (2005). Competitive stimulus interactions within single response fields of superior colliculus neurons. J Neurosci. 25:11357-11373. PMID 16339031

  • Basso MA, Pokorny JJ, and Liu P. (2005). Activity of substantia nigra pars reticulata neurons during smooth pursuit eye movements in monkeys. Eur J Neurosci. 22:448-464. PMID 16045498

  • Basso MA, Uhlrich D, and Bickford ME. (2005). Cortical function: a view from the thalamus. Neuron. 45:485-488. PMID 15756758

  • Williamson SS, Zivotofsky AZ, and Basso MA. (2005). Modulation of gaze-evoked blinks depends primarily on extraretinal factors. J Neurophysiol. 93:627-632. PMID 15342723
  • Basso MA and Wurtz RH. (2002). Neuronal activity in substantia nigra pars reticulata during target selection. J Neurosci. 22:1883-1894. PDF PMID 11880518

  • Wurtz RH, Basso MA, Paré M, and Sommer MA. (2000). The superior colliculus and the cognitive control of movement. In Gazzaniga MS (Editor-in-Chief), The New Cognitive Neurosciences, Second Edition (pp. 573-587). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

  • Basso MA. (1998). Cognitive set and oculomotor control. Neuron. 21:665-668. PDF PMID 9808453

  • Basso MA and Wurtz RH. (1998). Modulation of neuronal activity in superior colliculus by changes in target probability. J Neurosci. 18:7519-7534. PDF PMID 9736670

  • Basso MA and Wurtz RH. (1997). Target uncertainty modulates neuronal activity. Nature. 389:66-69. PDF PMID 9288967

  • Krauzlis RJ, Basso MA, and Wurtz RH. (1997). Shared motor error for multiple movements. Science. 276:1693-1695. PDF PMID 9180078

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