Expertise

Topics:  Complex Motor Control, Cognitive Brain Function, Neuroscience, Motor Coordination, Neural Circuits

Industries: Advanced Medical Equipment

The selection of actions is central to how we interact with the world, a reality that is often not fully appreciated until this ability is lost through impairments like stroke, Parkinson's Disease and OCD. The goal of Eric Yttri's research is to establish how neural circuits lead to these action selection decisions. The vital ability to make appropriate actions requires the coordination of motor, reward and cognitive brain systems. While compelling research has been accomplished in individual brain areas, studying elements of neuronal circuits in isolation yields an incomplete and potentially misleading picture. His research approach is inclusive yet specific: interrogating the functional interactions between areas in a manner more typical of cognitive neuroscience (e.g., fMRI) while also identifying the computational contributions of individual cell types within each region. His work uses electrophysiological, behavioral and computational tools to build upon the distributed action execution model, delineating a specific role for each individual cell in the motor system.

Media Experience

Understanding the biomechanics, neuroscience of athletes in the FIFA World Cup  — TribLive
For athletes, what separates the good from the great — and the elite on the FIFA World Cup stage — is the brain’s basal ganglia, a group of brain structures linked together to handle complex processes that affect a person’s body. “The main thing (athletes) possess is very detailed models of how to interact in any situation,” said Eric Yttri, a Carnegie Mellon University professor who studies bio­medical engineering and neuro­science.

Hesitation is costly in sports but essential to life – neuroscientists identified its brain circuitry  — Yahoo! News
As a neuroscientist, I have been working to uncover how the brain decides when to act and when to wait. Recent research from my team and me helps explain why this split-second pause happens, offering insight not only into elite athletic performance, but also how people make everyday decisions when the potential outcome isn’t clear. [...] Hesitation is not a flaw – it’s a critical feature for navigating an unpredictable world. Whether you’re a figure skater waiting for the perfect moment to launch your jump or just going about your day, the circuitry behind hesitation plays an important role in figuring out the timing to get the action right.

Carnegie Mellon University Hosts Interdisciplinary AI Conference  — India Education Diary
“It was fascinating to talk to all of the outside speakers that are asking very different questions and using very different models,” Yttri said. “Despite some people looking at proteins, RNA or neuroscience, the methods and thought processes we all use are remarkably similar.”

Gov. Wolf’s Health Department Mandates Masks For Schools, Child Care Facilities  — 90.5 WESA
As part of 90.5 WESA’s Good Question, Kid! Series, Eric Yttri, assistant professor of biological sciences and neuroscience researcher at Carnegie Mellon University, explains why songs get stuck in our heads.

New Algorithm to Revolutionize the Study of Behavior  — Carnegie Mellon University
Yttri said B-SOiD provides a huge improvement and opens up several avenues for new research. "It removes user bias and, more importantly, removes the time cost and arduous work," he said. "We can accurately process hours of data in a matter of minutes."

Machine learning algorithm revolutionizes how scientists study behavior  — Medical Xpress
To Eric Yttri, assistant professor of biological sciences and Neuroscience Institute faculty at Carnegie Mellon University, the best way to understand the brain is to watch how organisms interact with the world. "Behavior drives everything we do," Yttri said.

The weird Upside Down science behind ‘Stranger Things’  — CNN
In the lab, they can also create a kind of mind control. It’s not unlike the way the Mindflayer controls Will. “In neuroscience, we have a much less sinister but similar notion of that control,” Yttri said. “We can record neurons and essentially thoughts in the brain, read those out, decode them and then encode them into actions.”