Retrograde tracing of the neural circuits that control movement of the jaw and tongue reveals how shared premotor neurons help to ensure coordinated muscle activity.

A new three-step monosynaptic premotor tracing strategy in adult mice, together with registration to the Allen mouse common coordinate framework, uncovered precise spatial relationships of distinct orofacial premotor circuits in the brainstem.

A novel technology for recording muscle activity provides unprecedented access to the electrical signals that control the body across muscles, species, and behaviors.

Newly forming descending pathways are arranged to function in parallel to existing ones and contribute to increasingly sophisticated locomotor behaviors that emerge postnatally with suitable connectivity patterns and biophysical properties.

A predominant but less studied sensory pathway for both vibrissa self-motion and touch inputs is shown to broadcast broadly to brainstem regions involved in regulation of autonomic functions as well as forebrain regions involved in expression of emotional reactions.