Personal profile
Current Research Interests
We want to understand how the nervous system generates adaptive motor control
The mammalian nervous system has evolved to generate a wide repertoire of motor behaviours that ensure survival. From object manipulation and tool use, to complex locomotion and prey capture, the nervous system continuously processes sensory information to initiate, coordinate and update motor actions.
Our goal is to understand the neural circuit mechanisms that underpin voluntary motor control. We use the mouse as a tractable model of mammalian motor control and focus on a cellular and systems-level understanding of how distributed brain areas combine to implement action selection, execution, and adaptation.
Our projects use a suite of behavioural tasks including object manipulation, reach-to-grasp and touchscreen-based tasks. Combining high-resolution 3D tracking of limb movements with neural recordings, we aim to model how the nervous system controls and adapts movements depending on environmental requirements.
We monitor neural activity in vivo using patch-clamp electrophysiology, high density silicon probe recordings and mesoscale / multiphoton imaging. In collaboration with the Institute for Adaptive and Neuronal Computation we employ data-driven approaches to explore systems level computations and their neural implementations across brain regions.
To probe circuit level function, we use a combination of viral tracing, cell-specific perturbations and gene manipulation, approaches that allow us to interrogate the principal mechanisms of adaptive motor control at various levels of implementation.
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- 1 Similar Profiles
Collaborations and top research areas from the last five years
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RatDISCO, a tissue clearing and immunolabelling protocol for large rat brains
Craigie, K. J., Till, S., van de Gevel, B., Vandrey, B., Strangward, P., Sieger, D., Gonzalez-Sulser, A., Kind, P., Rochefort, N., Duguid, I. & Martinez-Gonzalez, C., 18 Aug 2025, bioRxiv, 39 p.Research output: Working paper › Preprint
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Acting together: Cortex and striatum specify movement kinematics
Sánchez Rivera, M. & Duguid, I., 19 Feb 2025, In: Neuron. 113, 4, p. 503-505 3 p.Research output: Contribution to journal › Comment/debate › peer-review
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Typical development of synaptic and neuronal properties can proceed without microglia in the cortex and thalamus
O'Keeffe, M., Booker, S. A., Walsh, D., Li, M., Henley, C., Simões De Oliveira, L., Liu, M., Wang, X., Banqueri Lopez, M., Ridley, K., Dissanayake, K., Martinez Gonzalez, C., Craigie, K. J., Vasoya, D., Leah, T., He, X., Hume, D. A., Duguid, I., Nolan, M. F. & Qiu, J. & 7 others, , 6 Jan 2025, In: Nature Neuroscience. 28, p. 268-279Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Hippocampal-dependent navigation in head-fixed mice using a floating real-world environment
Stuart, S. A., Palacios-Filardo, J., Domanski, A., Udakis, M., Duguid, I., Jones, M. W. & Mellor, J. R., Dec 2024, In: Scientific Reports. 14, 13 p., 14315.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
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Multiscale model of primary motor cortex circuits predicts in vivo cell-type-specific, behavioral state-dependent dynamics
Dura-Bernal, S., Neymotin, S. A., Suter, B. A., Dacre, J., Moreira, J. V. S., Urdapilleta, E., Schiemann, J., Duguid, I., Shepherd, G. M. G. & Lytton, W. W., 27 Jun 2023, In: Cell Reports. 42, 6, 112574.Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review
Open AccessFile
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Corticospinal neurons in response control and movement coordination
Duguid, I. (Principal Investigator)
Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
4/03/24 → 30/04/27
Project: Research
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Action specification in motor circuits
Duguid, I. (Principal Investigator)
1/10/23 → 30/09/31
Project: Research
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Miniature microscopes for ultra-high frame rate imaging in freely moving animals
Mitra, S. (Principal Investigator), Duguid, I. (Co-investigator), Gyongy, I. (Co-investigator), Henderson, R. (Co-investigator) & Nolan, M. (Co-investigator)
6/06/22 → 5/06/27
Project: Research
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Imaging macroscopic cortical dynamics to understand sensorimotor dysfunction and recovery in a mouse model of Rett Syndrome
Cobb, S. (Principal Investigator) & Duguid, I. (Co-investigator)
1/02/22 → 31/01/25
Project: Research
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Imaging macroscopic cortical dynamics to understand sensorimotor dysfunction and recovery in a mouse model of Rett Syndrome
Duguid, I. (Principal Investigator) & Cobb, S. (Co-investigator)
1/02/22 → 31/01/26
Project: Research
Datasets
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DuguidLab/visiomode: A rodent touchscreen-based visuomotor behaviour platform
Eleftheriou, C. (Creator), Clarke, T. (Creator), Poon, V. (Creator), Zechner, M. (Creator) & Duguid, I. (Creator), Zenodo, 21 Jul 2022
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6877796, https://zenodo.org/record/6877796
Dataset
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Visiomode Arena Setup
Clarke, T. (Creator), Eleftheriou, C. (Creator), Poon, V. (Creator), Zechner, M. (Creator) & Duguid, I. (Creator), Zenodo, 21 Jul 2022
DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.6877082, https://zenodo.org/records/6877082
Dataset