The representing brain: Neural correlates of motor intention and imagery

1994 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Jeannerod
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Motor Preparation ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Positive Effects ◽  
Motor Intention ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Motor Actions ◽  
Motor Representations

AbstractThis paper concerns how motor actions are neurally represented and coded. Action planning and motor preparation can be studied using a specific type of representational activity, motor imagery. A close functional equivalence between motor imagery and motor preparation is suggested by the positive effects of imagining movements on motor learning, the similarity between the neural structures involved, and the similar physiological correlates observed in both imaging and preparing. The content of motor representations can be inferred from motor images at a macroscopic level, based on global aspects of the action (the duration and amount of effort involved) and the motor rules and constraints which predict the spatial path and kinematics of movements. A more microscopic neural account calls for a representation of object-oriented action. Object attributes are processed in different neural pathways depending on the kind of task the subject is performing. During object-oriented action, a pragmatic representation is activated in which object affordances are transformed into specific motor schemas (independently of other tasks such as object recognition). Animal as well as human clinical data implicate the posterior parietal and premotor cortical areas in schema instantiation. A mechanism is proposed that is able to encode the desired goal of the action and is applicable to different levels of representational organization.

The hand and the object: the role of posterior parietal cortex in forming motor representations

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 535-541 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Jeannerod
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Information ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Object Oriented ◽  
Hand Movements ◽  
Visuomotor Coordination ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Motor Representations ◽  
Parietal Lesion

The hypothesis of several subsystems for processing visual information is expanded to the context of visuomotor functions. It is proposed that object-oriented actions involve three main types of processing whether the object is to be localized, identified, or grasped and manipulated. Neurological evidence from patients is provided, showing that each type of processing pertains to a distinct pathway. Whereas identification is impaired by lesions affecting the occipitotemporal pathway, localization and grasping are processed in posterior patrietal cortex. A new clinical case with a parietal lesion is presented, where the grasping deficit contrasted with preservation of both identification and localization. This result suggests separate representations for localizing and grasping within parietal cortex.Key words: visuomotor coordination, hand movements, parietal cortex, neuropsychology.

scholarly journals Parietal maps of visual signals for bodily action planning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy A. Orban ◽  
Alessia Sepe ◽  
Luca Bonini
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Body Schema ◽  
Action Planning ◽  
Social World ◽  
The Body ◽  
Visual Signals ◽  
Sensorimotor Processing ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
High Level ◽  
Motor Actions

AbstractThe posterior parietal cortex (PPC) has long been understood as a high-level integrative station for computing motor commands for the body based on sensory (i.e., mostly tactile and visual) input from the outside world. In the last decade, accumulating evidence has shown that the parietal areas not only extract the pragmatic features of manipulable objects, but also subserve sensorimotor processing of others’ actions. A paradigmatic case is that of the anterior intraparietal area (AIP), which encodes the identity of observed manipulative actions that afford potential motor actions the observer could perform in response to them. On these bases, we propose an AIP manipulative action-based template of the general planning functions of the PPC and review existing evidence supporting the extension of this model to other PPC regions and to a wider set of actions: defensive and locomotor actions. In our model, a hallmark of PPC functioning is the processing of information about the physical and social world to encode potential bodily actions appropriate for the current context. We further extend the model to actions performed with man-made objects (e.g., tools) and artifacts, because they become integral parts of the subject’s body schema and motor repertoire. Finally, we conclude that existing evidence supports a generally conserved neural circuitry that transforms integrated sensory signals into the variety of bodily actions that primates are capable of preparing and performing to interact with their physical and social world.

Exploring Cognition with Brain–Machine Interfaces

2022 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-158
Author(s):  
Richard A. Andersen ◽  
Tyson Aflalo ◽  
Luke Bashford ◽  
David Bjånes ◽  
Spencer Kellis
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Sensory Information ◽  
Movement Control ◽  
Brain Machine Interfaces ◽  
Motor Commands ◽  
Cortical Motor ◽  
Structured Representations ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Integration Planning ◽  
Motor Actions

Traditional brain–machine interfaces decode cortical motor commands to control external devices. These commands are the product of higher-level cognitive processes, occurring across a network of brain areas, that integrate sensory information, plan upcoming motor actions, and monitor ongoing movements. We review cognitive signals recently discovered in the human posterior parietal cortex during neuroprosthetic clinical trials. These signals are consistent with small regions of cortex having a diverse role in cognitive aspects of movement control and body monitoring, including sensorimotor integration, planning, trajectory representation, somatosensation, action semantics, learning, and decision making. These variables are encoded within the same population of cells using structured representations that bind related sensory and motor variables, an architecture termed partially mixed selectivity. Diverse cognitive signals provide complementary information to traditional motor commands to enable more natural and intuitive control of external devices.

scholarly journals Change in Motor Plan, Without a Change in the Spatial Locus of Attention, Modulates Activity in Posterior Parietal Cortex

1998 ◽  
Vol 79 (5) ◽  
pp. 2814-2819 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lawrence H. Snyder ◽  
Aaron P. Batista ◽  
Richard A. Andersen
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Macaque Monkey ◽  
Case Control ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Lateral Intraparietal Area ◽  
Central Target ◽  
Motor Plan ◽  
Motor Intention ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Snyder, Lawrence H., Aaron P. Batista, and Richard A. Andersen. Change in motor plan, without a change in the spatial locus of attention, modulates activity in posterior parietal cortex. J. Neurophysiol. 79: 2814–2819, 1998. The lateral intraparietal area (LIP) of macaque monkey, and a parietal reach region (PRR) medial and posterior to LIP, code the intention to make visually guided eye and arm movements, respectively. We studied the effect of changing the motor plan, without changing the locus of attention, on single neurons in these two areas. A central target was fixated while one or two sequential flashes occurred in the periphery. The first appeared either within the response field of the neuron being recorded or else on the opposite side of the fixation point. Animals planned a saccade (red flash) or reach (green flash) to the flash location. In some trials, a second flash 750 ms later could change the motor plan but never shifted attention: second flashes always occurred at the same location as the preceding first flash. Responses in LIP were larger when a saccade was instructed ( n = 20 cells), whereas responses in PRR were larger when a reach was instructed ( n = 17). This motor preference was observed for both first flashes and second flashes. In addition, the response to a second flash depended on whether it affirmed or countermanded the first flash; second flash responses were diminished only in the former case. Control experiments indicated that this differential effect was not due to stimulus novelty. These findings support a role for posterior parietal cortex in coding specific motor intention and are consistent with a possible role in the nonspatial shifting of motor intention.

scholarly journals Implicit Motor Imagery and the Lateral Occipitotemporal Cortex: Hints for Tailoring Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (16) ◽  
pp. 5851 ◽  
Author(s):  
Massimiliano Conson ◽  
Roberta Cecere ◽  
Chiara Baiano ◽  
Francesco De Bellis ◽  
Gabriela Forgione ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Brain Stimulation ◽  
Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Dominant Hand ◽  
Non Invasive ◽  
Implicit Motor ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
Occipitotemporal Cortex ◽  
Biomechanical Effect ◽  
Motor Representations

Background: Recent evidence has converged in showing that the lateral occipitotemporal cortex is over-recruited during implicit motor imagery in elderly and in patients with neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease. These data suggest that when automatically imaging movements, individuals exploit neural resources in the visual areas to compensate for the decline in activating motor representations. Thus, the occipitotemporal cortex could represent a cortical target of non-invasive brain stimulation combined with cognitive training to enhance motor imagery performance. Here, we aimed at shedding light on the role of the left and right lateral occipitotemporal cortex in implicit motor imagery. Methods: We applied online, high-frequency, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) over the left and right lateral occipitotemporal cortex while healthy right-handers judged the laterality of hand images. Results: With respect to the sham condition, left hemisphere stimulation specifically reduced accuracy in judging the laterality of right-hand images. Instead, the hallmark of motor simulation, i.e., the biomechanical effect, was never influenced by rTMS. Conclusions: The lateral occipitotemporal cortex seems to be involved in mental representation of the dominant hand, at least in right-handers, but not in reactivating sensorimotor information during simulation. These findings provide useful hints for developing combined brain stimulation and behavioural trainings to improve motor imagery.

scholarly journals A study on the effect of electrical stimulation as a user stimuli for motor imagery classification in Brain-Machine Interface

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Saugat Bhattacharyya ◽  
Maureen Clerc ◽  
Mitsuhiro Hayashibe
Keyword(s):  
Electrical Stimulation ◽  
Motor Imagery ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
Movement Training ◽  
Peripheral Muscle ◽  
Motor Intention ◽  
Machine Interface ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Muscle Groups ◽  
Muscle Activations

Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) provides a neuroprosthetic interface to non-recovered muscle groups by stimulating the affected region of the human body. FES in combination with Brain-machine interfacing (BMI) has a wide scope in rehabilitation because this system directly links the cerebral motor intention of the users with its corresponding peripheral muscle activations. In this paper, we examine the effect of FES on the electroencephalography (EEG) during motor imagery (left- and right-hand movement) training of the users. Results suggest a significant improvement in the classification accuracy when the subject was induced with FES stimuli as compared to the standard visual one.

scholarly journals Distinct roles of visual, parietal, and frontal motor cortices in memory-guided sensorimotor decisions

eLife ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael J Goard ◽  
Gerald N Pho ◽  
Jonathan Woodson ◽  
Mriganka Sur
Keyword(s):  
Calcium Imaging ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Behavioral Choice ◽  
Population Analyses ◽  
Delay Response ◽  
Sensory Features ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Stimulus Identity ◽  
Motor Actions

Mapping specific sensory features to future motor actions is a crucial capability of mammalian nervous systems. We investigated the role of visual (V1), posterior parietal (PPC), and frontal motor (fMC) cortices for sensorimotor mapping in mice during performance of a memory-guided visual discrimination task. Large-scale calcium imaging revealed that V1, PPC, and fMC neurons exhibited heterogeneous responses spanning all task epochs (stimulus, delay, response). Population analyses demonstrated unique encoding of stimulus identity and behavioral choice information across regions, with V1 encoding stimulus, fMC encoding choice even early in the trial, and PPC multiplexing the two variables. Optogenetic inhibition during behavior revealed that all regions were necessary during the stimulus epoch, but only fMC was required during the delay and response epochs. Stimulus identity can thus be rapidly transformed into behavioral choice, requiring V1, PPC, and fMC during the transformation period, but only fMC for maintaining the choice in memory prior to execution.

scholarly journals Topographic Organization for Delayed Saccades in Human Posterior Parietal Cortex

2005 ◽  
Vol 94 (2) ◽  
pp. 1372-1384 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denis Schluppeck ◽  
Paul Glimcher ◽  
David J. Heeger
Keyword(s):  
Visual Field ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Target Location ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Topographic Maps ◽  
Field Orientation ◽  
Topographic Organization ◽  
Motor Intention ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is thought to play a critical role in decision making, sensory attention, motor intention, and/or working memory. Research on the PPC in non-human primates has focused on the lateral intraparietal area (LIP) in the intraparietal sulcus (IPS). Neurons in LIP respond after the onset of visual targets, just before saccades to those targets, and during the delay period in between. To study the function of posterior parietal cortex in humans, it will be crucial to have a routine and reliable method for localizing specific parietal areas in individual subjects. Here, we show that human PPC contains at least two topographically organized regions, which are candidates for the human homologue of LIP. We mapped the topographic organization of human PPC for delayed (memory guided) saccades using fMRI. Subjects were instructed to fixate centrally while a peripheral target was briefly presented. After a further 3-s delay, subjects made a saccade to the remembered target location followed by a saccade back to fixation and a 1-s inter-trial interval. Targets appeared at successive locations “around the clock” (same eccentricity, ≈30° angular steps), to produce a traveling wave of activity in areas that are topographically organized. PPC exhibited topographic organization for delayed saccades. We defined two areas in each hemisphere that contained topographic maps of the contra-lateral visual field. These two areas were immediately rostral to V7 as defined by standard retinotopic mapping. The two areas were separated from each other and from V7 by reversals in visual field orientation. However, we leave open the possibility that these two areas will be further subdivided in future studies. Our results demonstrate that topographic maps tile the cortex continuously from V1 well into PPC.

On the relations between action planning, object identification, and motor representations of observed actions and objects

Cognition ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 108 (2) ◽  
pp. 444-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lari Vainio ◽  
Ed Symes ◽  
Rob Ellis ◽  
Mike Tucker ◽  
Giovanni Ottoboni
Keyword(s):  
Action Planning ◽  
Object Identification ◽  
Motor Representations

scholarly journals Virtual Lesion of Angular Gyrus Disrupts the Relationship between Visuoproprioceptive Weighting and Realignment

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 636-648 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hannah Block ◽  
Amy Bastian ◽  
Pablo Celnik
Keyword(s):  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Hand Position ◽  
Proprioceptive Information ◽  
Neural Pathways ◽  
Virtual Lesion ◽  
Sensory Weighting ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Common Substrate ◽  
The Relationship

Posterior parietal cortex is thought to be involved in multisensory processes such as sensory weighting (how much different modalities are represented in sensory integration) and realignment (recalibrating the estimates given by unisensory inputs relative to each other, e.g., when viewing the hand through prisms). Sensory weighting and realignment are biologically independent but can be correlated such that the lowest-weighted modality realigns most. This is important for movement precision because it results in the brain's estimate of hand position favoring the more reliable (higher-weighted) modality. It is unknown if this interaction is an emergent property of separate neural pathways for weighting and realignment or if it is actively mediated by a common substrate. We applied disruptive TMS to the angular gyrus near the intraparietal sulcus (PGa) before participants performed a task with misaligned visual and proprioceptive information about hand position. Visuoproprioceptive weighting and realignment were unaffected. However, the relationship between weighting and realignment, found in control conditions, was absent after TMS in the angular gyrus location. This suggests that a specific region in the angular gyrus actively mediates the interaction between visuoproprioceptive weighting and realignment and may thus play a role in the decreased movement precision associated with posterior parietal lesions.

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