Research showing that the brain anticipates movement changes during uncertain situations has earned Assistant Professor Jonathan Michaels a , a joint honour from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Neurosciences – Mental Health and Addiction (CIHR-INMHA) and the Canadian Association for Neuroscience (CAN).
The award recognizes excellence in neuroscience research published by trainees in Canada, with Michaels ranking among the top three of 15 individuals honoured this year.
Published in Nature, examines how the brain’s motor networks incorporate expectations about possible disruptions into movement control.
Rather than remaining idle until something goes wrong, the brain’s motor networks adjust their internal state based on what is most likely to happen next, positioning the body to respond quickly if needed.
“The research shows that everyday movement relies on the brain’s capacity to plan ahead – including preparing for likely disturbances,” explains Michaels, a researcher at 91ŃÇɫ’s School of Kinesiology and Health Science in the Faculty of Health. “When navigating a busy sidewalk, for instance, the brain is bracing for potential collisions with others before they occur – and it’s this split-second anticipation that keeps human movement smooth and stable.”
The award, he says, “is an honour to receive. It’s a clear indicator that our research working to understand how the brain controls movement, which spans human behaviour, electrophysiology in animal models, and modelling, is valued in the Canadian Neuroscience community.”
The work, which Michaels conducted as a Banting and BrainsCAN postdoctoral fellow in the lab of senior author Andrew Pruszynski at Western University, used a robotic system – known as the KINARM exoskeleton – to apply small, controlled forces to participants’ arms while they performed reaching tasks. Participants were given visual cues about the likelihood of a “push” coming from a particular direction and their reactions and muscle activity were recorded.
In order to uncover the underlying neural mechanism, the researchers recorded brain activity in non-human primates performing a similar task, using Neuropixels probes – an advanced recording technology capable of monitoring activity from thousands of neurons at once – to observe how the brain plans, executes and corrects movement.
The findings show that participants altered their movements based on those visual cues and responded faster and more efficiently when the push matched what their brains had been led to expect.
“When a disturbance matches what the brain anticipates, muscle responses are faster and require less corrective effort,” says Michaels. “The brain generates a rapid signal correcting the disturbance at a speed faster than when we initiate voluntary movements.”
By identifying expectation as a core component of stable movement, the findings point toward new approaches in rehabilitation following stroke or injury. Rather than focusing solely on rebuilding muscle strength, future therapies could aim to restore the brain’s predictive setup, helping patients regain smoother and more adaptable movement.
The same insight could also have implications for future brain‑computer interfaces – such as technologies designed to translate neural signals into movement for people with paralysis. Systems that can anticipate user intentions and adapt to unexpected changes could become more accurate and reliable.
To support open research, the team made the complete neural dataset , an open-access repository, creating what Michaels describes as one of the most extensive resources available for studying how the brain anticipates and corrects for disturbances.