Ole Kiehn: Unraveling brainstem circuits for movement - Insights into motor control and implications for treatment of movement disorders

We are pleased to invite you to the upcoming MDC neuroscience seminar held by Ole Kiehn, Department of Neuroscience, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (https://in.ku.dk/research/kiehn-lab/).

Ole Kiehn is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking work on the neural circuits that control movement. A recipient of “The Brain Prize” and member of several prestigious academies, he has been at the forefront of uncovering how brain and spinal networks interact to produce coordinated movement providing insights that are transforming our understanding of motor control and offering new avenues for treating movement disorders.

The seminar entitled “Unraveling brainstem circuits for movement: Insights into motor control and implications for treatment of movement disorders” will take place on November 21, 2025 at 11am in Axon 2 at the MDC.C Campus Buch.

Abstract: Movement is the output of almost all brain functions. Among movement, locomotion is one of the most fundamental and universal to animals and humans. Locomotion is organized at many levels of the nervous system, with brainstem circuits acting as the gate between brain areas regulating innate, emotional, or motivational locomotion and the executing spinal motor circuits. To be executed, locomotion requires dynamic initiation and termination and appropriate directionally. This lecture will focus on recent advances that have elucidated the functional organization of these brainstem command circuits in mammals needed to perform these roles. The lecture will show that these brainstem circuits are linked to basal ganglia circuits and context dependent selection of movement in widespread brain networks implicated in diverse brain functions. I will also discuss how locomotor disturbances following e.g. basal ganglia disorders may be alleviated by targeted activation of brainstem command pathways.

Host: Niccolo Zampieri

We would be delighted if you could join and take part in the discussion.

If you would like to participate to the Postdoc/Student lunch with Ole after the talk, please let me know.

A zoom link will be available on request for colleagues at MDC-BIMSB.

Organizers