scholarly journals Efficient cortical coding of 3D posture in freely behaving rats

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartul Mimica ◽  
Benjamin A. Dunn ◽  
Tuce Tombaz ◽  
V.P.T.N.C. Srikanth Bojja ◽  
Jonathan R. Whitlock
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Movement Planning ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Efficient Manner ◽  
Spatial Movement ◽  
Ongoing Behavior ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Freely Behaving

In order to meet physical and behavioural demands of their environments animals constantly update their body posture, but little is known about the neural signals on which this ability depends. To better understand the role of cortex in coordinating natural pose and movement, we tracked the heads and backs of freely foraging rats in 3D while recording simultaneously from posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and frontal motor cortex (M2), areas critical for spatial movement planning and navigation. Single units in both regions were tuned mainly to postural features of the head, back and neck, and much less so to their movement. Representations of the head and back were organized topographically across PPC and M2, and the tuning peaks of the cells were distributed in an efficient manner, where substantially fewer cells encoded postures that occurred more often. Postural signals in both areas were sufficiently robust to allow reconstruction of ongoing behavior with 90% accuracy. Together, these findings demonstrate that both parietal and frontal motor cortices maintain an efficient, organized representation of 3D posture during unrestrained behavior.

scholarly journals Efficient cortical coding of 3D posture in freely behaving rats

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 362 (6414) ◽  
pp. 584-589 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bartul Mimica ◽  
Benjamin A. Dunn ◽  
Tuce Tombaz ◽  
V. P. T. N. C. Srikanth Bojja ◽  
Jonathan R. Whitlock
Keyword(s):  
Motor Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Movement Planning ◽  
Three Dimensions ◽  
Population Code ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Ongoing Behavior ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Freely Behaving ◽  
Head Neck

Animals constantly update their body posture to meet behavioral demands, but little is known about the neural signals on which this depends. We therefore tracked freely foraging rats in three dimensions while recording from the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) and the frontal motor cortex (M2), areas critical for movement planning and navigation. Both regions showed strong tuning to posture of the head, neck, and back, but signals for movement were much less dominant. Head and back representations were organized topographically across the PPC and M2, and more neurons represented postures that occurred less often. Simultaneous recordings across areas were sufficiently robust to decode ongoing behavior and showed that spiking in the PPC tended to precede that in M2. Both the PPC and M2 strongly represent posture by using a spatially organized, energetically efficient population code.

scholarly journals Single Trial Decoding of Movement Intentions Using Functional Ultrasound Neuroimaging

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sumner L. Norman ◽  
David Maresca ◽  
Vasileios N. Christopoulos ◽  
Whitney S. Griggs ◽  
Charlie Demene ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
High Performance ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Cerebral Blood Volume ◽  
Spatial Perception ◽  
Brain Area ◽  
Movement Planning ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Spatiotemporal Resolution ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Movement Intention

AbstractBrain-machine interfaces (BMI) are powerful devices for restoring function to people living with paralysis. Leveraging significant advances in neurorecording technology, computational power, and understanding of the underlying neural signals, BMI have enabled severely paralyzed patients to control external devices, such as computers and robotic limbs. However, high-performance BMI currently require highly invasive recording techniques, and are thus only available to niche populations. Here, we show that a minimally invasive neuroimaging approach based on functional ultrasound (fUS) imaging can be used to detect and decode movement intention signals usable for BMI. We trained non-human primates to perform memory-guided movements while using epidural fUS imaging to record changes in cerebral blood volume from the posterior parietal cortex – a brain area important for spatial perception, multisensory integration, and movement planning. Using hemodynamic signals acquired during movement planning, we classified left-cued vs. right-cued movements, establishing the feasibility of ultrasonic BMI. These results demonstrate the ability of fUS-based neural interfaces to take advantage of the excellent spatiotemporal resolution, sensitivity, and field of view of ultrasound without breaching the dura or physically penetrating brain tissue.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Disrupts Eye-Hand Interactions in the Posterior Parietal Cortex

2000 ◽  
Vol 84 (3) ◽  
pp. 1677-1680 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Van Donkelaar ◽  
Ji-Hang Lee ◽  
Anthony S. Drew
Keyword(s):  
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Hand Movement ◽  
Open Loop ◽  
Neurophysiological Studies ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Hand Coordination

Recent neurophysiological studies have started to shed some light on the cortical areas that contribute to eye-hand coordination. In the present study we investigated the role of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in this process in normal, healthy subjects. This was accomplished by delivering single pulses of transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the PPC to transiently disrupt the putative contribution of this area to the processing of information related to eye-hand coordination. Subjects made open-loop pointing movements accompanied by saccades of the same required amplitude or by saccades that were substantially larger. Without TMS the hand movement amplitude was influenced by the amplitude of the corresponding saccade; hand movements accompanied by larger saccades were larger than those accompanied by smaller saccades. When TMS was applied over the left PPC just prior to the onset of the saccade, a marked reduction in the saccadic influence on manual motor output was observed. TMS delivered at earlier or later periods during the response had no effect. Taken together, these data suggest that the PPC integrates signals related to saccade amplitude with limb movement information just prior to the onset of the saccade.

Role of the posterior parietal cortex in updating reaching movements to a visual target

10.1038/9219 ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 2 (6) ◽  
pp. 563-567 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Desmurget ◽  
C. M. Epstein ◽  
R. S. Turner ◽  
C. Prablanc ◽  
G. E. Alexander ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Visual Target ◽  
Reaching Movements ◽  
Posterior Parietal

scholarly journals Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Over the Human Medial Posterior Parietal Cortex Disrupts Depth Encoding During Reach Planning

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (1) ◽  
pp. 267-280
Author(s):  
Rossella Breveglieri ◽  
Annalisa Bosco ◽  
Sara Borgomaneri ◽  
Alessia Tessari ◽  
Claudio Galletti ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Magnetic Stimulation ◽  
Posterior Parietal Cortex ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
The Body ◽  
Visually Guided ◽  
Visually Guided Reaching ◽  
Posterior Parietal

Abstract Accumulating evidence supports the view that the medial part of the posterior parietal cortex (mPPC) is involved in the planning of reaching, but while plenty of studies investigated reaching performed toward different directions, only a few studied different depths. Here, we investigated the causal role of mPPC (putatively, human area V6A–hV6A) in encoding depth and direction of reaching. Specifically, we applied single-pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) over the left hV6A at different time points while 15 participants were planning immediate, visually guided reaching by using different eye-hand configurations. We found that TMS delivered over hV6A 200 ms after the Go signal affected the encoding of the depth of reaching by decreasing the accuracy of movements toward targets located farther with respect to the gazed position, but only when they were also far from the body. The effectiveness of both retinotopic (farther with respect to the gaze) and spatial position (far from the body) is in agreement with the presence in the monkey V6A of neurons employing either retinotopic, spatial, or mixed reference frames during reach plan. This work provides the first causal evidence of the critical role of hV6A in the planning of visually guided reaching movements in depth.

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