Survival requires the flexibility to achieve one’s behavioral goals from virtually any starting point. This remarkable ability enables a hungry person to pick an apple regardless of whether their hand begins overhead or at their side, an imperiled mouse to escape to its burrow from anywhere in its environment, and a dragonfly to capture prey at any point in flight. We investigate how the brain flexibly selects movements that take into account the animal’s starting point and how this process is altered in conditions such as autism. Our multidisciplinary approach merges mouse behavior, neural recording and perturbation, anatomical tracing, molecular tool development, and mathematical modeling. 

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