A collaboration between DRCMR, the Department of Exercise and Sport Sciences and the Department of Neurobiology and Pharmacology (University of Copenhagen) has proven fruitful. Whilst investigating the neural mechanisms underlying movement perception, a group of researchers (Mark Schram Christensen, Jesper Lundbye-Jensen, Svend Sparre Geertsen, Tue Hvass Petersen, Olaf B. Paulson and Jens Bo Nielsen) made an interesting discovery. We already know that whenever we move, signals from our muscles, tendons and joints provide information about the movement to our brains. However, when this information flow is blocked, activation of the somatosensory cortex is preserved and actually shows an increased interaction with the premotor cortex. This suggests that the brain compensates for the absence by self-inducing the activation which it expects to be present in the somatosensory cortex when the body moves. The work has been published in Nature Neuroscience.

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