January 14 – April 23, 2026

Lecture: Wednesdays, 3:00–5:00 PM
Location: Jerome L. Greene Science Center, 5th Floor Large Conference Room
Associated Lab Visits/Activities: Thursdays, 4:00–5:00 PM, location varies, see

schedule here

schedule here

Note: Thursday lab visits, demos, and hands-on activities are limited to trainees in the labs of the 15 PIs on the training grant due to space constraints. Special requests may be accommodated with 2–3 weeks’ notice; please contact the program administrators.

Course Description

Topics in Sensorimotor Control is a new course supported by an NIH T32 postdoctoral training grant in Integrated Computational and Experimental Sensorimotor Control. Each week, one PI from the training grant will lead a 2-hour session consisting of:

• 1-hour didactic background lecture
• 1-hour research-focused presentation

The following day, a separate 1-hour lab visit, demonstration, or hands-on activity is organized by the same PI (limited availability, see note above).

The course is designed to bring trainees up to speed on experimental and theoretical neuroscience around sensorimotor control. Topics will range across multiple model organisms as well as computational models. There is no assessment component.

Course Materials

Select slides from the Spring 2026 course are available to Columbia affiliates upon request. Please email [email protected] for access.

Who Is the Course For?

This course would suit anyone with an interest in sensorimotor control at a graduate level or above. We anticipate attendees will have a comprehensive background in neuroscience research, but with specializations in a variety of fields and research models. The anticipated audience is PhD students and postdoctoral researchers across Columbia University, but all Columbia trainees, staff, and faculty are welcome.

Lectures reflect each speaker’s area of expertise. While some background concepts will be included, material will not be presented in a strict pedagogical sequence, nor will it provide a comprehensive introduction to all aspects of sensorimotor or computational/theoretical neuroscience. Attending multiple sessions is strongly encouraged but not required.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, trainees will be able to:

• Critically analyze foundational and current research presented by participating PIs in sensorimotor control, sensorimotor learning, and sensorimotor integration within and across model systems, and compare research across species and techniques
• Describe and evaluate key computational frameworks used in sensorimotor neuroscience
• Design experiments that effectively link theory and data
• Apply foundational principles of statistical methodology and computational analysis

Course Communications & Announcements

Email announcements and any updates or changes in the schedule will be communicated to all Zuckerman Institute affiliates via the Institute’s weekly digest. Course updates can also be found on the Zuckerman Institute website. Columbia affiliates interested in receiving updates can sign up for the Institute’s community listserv, which also provides a weekly digest of events open to everyone at Columbia.

There is also a monthly Sensorimotor Control Journal Club associated with this program. Zuckerman Institute faculty, students, and researchers interested in participating can join the Journal Club mailing list to receive papers in advance.

Course Credit

The Spring 2026 offering is a pilot and will not be offered for academic credit. Participant feedback will help shape a proposed for-credit version for the Neurobiology & Behavior Graduate Program in 2027.

Organizers & Contact Information

Faculty Directors: Daniel Wolpert ([email protected]), Gwyneth Card ([email protected]), Ashok Litwin-Kumar ([email protected])

Program Administrators: Chris Garbutt ([email protected]), Melinda Miller ([email protected])

Course Schedule (last updated 4/6/2026)

Up-to-date information for each lecture is also available on the ZI events page.

For the full course schedule and additional details, cick

here

here

SPRING 2026

January 14
Daniel Wolpert
Principles of sensorimotor control
Lab visit: January 15

January 20
Lea Duncker
Dynamical systems approaches
Lab visit: January 23 -  CANCELED 

January 28
Mark Churchland
Cortical control of movement
Lab visit: January 29

February 4
Ashok Litwin-Kumar
Models of learning and motor control in cerebellum and basal ganglia
Lab visit: February 5

February 10 (updated*)
Nate Sawtell
Cerebellar sensorimotor control and corollary discharge
Lab visit: February 12

February 18
Matt Whiteway (CTN/Paninski Lab)
Decoding behavior and prediction of neural activity
Lab visit: February 19

February 25
Vikram Gadagkar
Reinforcement learning in the songbird
Lab visit: February 26

March 4
Gwyneth Card
Sensorimotor control in the fly
Lab visit: March 5

March 25
Stephen Huston
Brain-body interactions in motor control
Lab visit: March 26

April 1
Larry Abbott
Coordinate transformations and steering computation
Lab visit: April 2

April 8
Michael Shadlen
Perceptual decision-making: Speed vs accuray and frames of reference
Lab visit: April 9

April 22 - CANCELED
Daphna Shohamy
Human learning, memory, and decision making
Lab visit: April 23 - CANCELED