Faculty Opinions recommendation of The role of the monkey dorsal pontine nuclei in goal-directed eye and hand movements.

Studies that have investigated how sensory feedback about the moving hand is used to control hand movements have relied on paradigms such as pointing or reaching that require subjects to acquire target locations. In the context of these target-directed tasks, it has been found repeatedly that the human sensory-motor system relies heavily on visual feedback to control the ongoing movement. This finding has been formalized within the framework of statistical optimality according to which different sources of sensory feedback are combined such as to minimize variance in sensory information during movement control. Importantly, however, many hand movements that people perform every day are not target-directed, but based on allocentric (object-centered) visual information. Examples of allocentric movements are gesture imitation, drawing, or copying. Here we tested if visual feedback about the moving hand is used in the same way to control target-directed and allocentric hand movements. The results show that visual feedback is used significantly more to reduce movement scatter in the target-directed as compared with the allocentric movement task. Furthermore, we found that differences in the use of visual feedback between target-directed and allocentric hand movements cannot be explained based on differences in uncertainty about the movement goal. We conclude that the role played by visual feedback for movement control is fundamentally different for target-directed and allocentric movements. The results suggest that current computational and neural models of sensorimotor control that are based entirely on data derived from target-directed paradigms have to be modified to accommodate performance in the allocentric tasks used in our experiments. As a consequence, the results cast doubt on the idea that models of sensorimotor control developed exclusively from data obtained in target-directed paradigms are also valid in the context of allocentric tasks, such as drawing, copying, or imitative gesturing, that characterize much of human behavior.

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The Role of Hand Movement in Spatial Serial Order Memory

Multisensory Research ◽

10.1163/22134808-20191350 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 33 (3) ◽

pp. 313-335

Author(s):

Yangke Zhao ◽

Chuansheng Chen ◽

Xiuying Qian

Keyword(s):

Hand Movement ◽

Serial Order ◽

Hand Movements ◽

Facilitation Effect ◽

Serial Memory ◽

Backward Recall ◽

Passive Viewing ◽

Memory Experiment ◽

Serial Order Memory

Abstract Research on serial order memory has traditionally used tasks where participants passively view the items. A few studies that included hand movement showed that such movement interfered with serial order memory. In the present study of three experiments, we investigated whether and how hand movements improved spatial serial order memory. Experiment 1 showed that manual tracing (i.e., hand movements that traced the presentation of stimuli on the modified eCorsi block tapping task) improved the performance of backward recall as compared to no manual tracing (the control condition). Experiment 2 showed that the facilitation effect resulted from voluntary hand movements and could not be achieved via passive viewing of another person’s manual tracing. Experiment 3 showed that it was the temporal, not the spatial, signal within manual tracing that facilitated spatial serial memory.

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Role of pontine nuclei damage in smooth pursuit impairment of progressive supranuclear palsy: A clinical-pathologic study

Neurology ◽

10.1212/wnl.44.4.716 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 44 (4) ◽

pp. 716-716 ◽

Cited By ~ 19

Author(s):

S. Malessa ◽

B. Gaymard ◽

S. Rivaud ◽

P. Cervera ◽

E. Hirsch ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy ◽

Smooth Pursuit ◽

Pontine Nuclei ◽

Pathologic Study

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Chronically instrumented goats are a viable model to further elucidate the role of pontine nuclei in the control of breathing in both the awake and sleep states

The FASEB Journal ◽

10.1096/fasebj.20.4.a783-c ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 20 (4) ◽

Author(s):

J M Bonis ◽

S Davis ◽

C Opansky ◽

K Krause ◽

P Martino ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Control Of Breathing ◽

Pontine Nuclei ◽

Viable Model

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Obtaining and maintaining cortical hand representation as evidenced from acquired and congenital handlessness

eLife ◽

10.7554/elife.37227 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Daan B Wesselink ◽

Fiona MZ van den Heiligenberg ◽

Naveed Ejaz ◽

Harriet Dempsey-Jones ◽

Lucilla Cardinali ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Motor Control ◽

Motor Cortex ◽

Hand Movements ◽

Similarity Analysis ◽

Cortical Representation ◽

Representational Similarity Analysis ◽

Key Aspects

A key question in neuroscience is how cortical organisation relates to experience. Previously we showed that amputees experiencing highly vivid phantom sensations maintain cortical representation of their missing hand (Kikkert et al., 2016). Here, we examined the role of sensory hand experience on persistent hand representation by studying individuals with acquired and congenital hand loss. We used representational similarity analysis in primary somatosensory and motor cortex during missing and intact hand movements. We found that key aspects of acquired amputees’ missing hand representation persisted, despite varying vividness of phantom sensations. In contrast, missing hand representation of congenital one-handers, who do not experience phantom sensations, was significantly reduced. Across acquired amputees, individuals’ reported motor control over their phantom hand positively correlated with the extent to which their somatosensory hand representation was normally organised. We conclude that once cortical organisation is formed, it is remarkably persistent, despite long-term attenuation of peripheral signals.

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Vergence Eye Movements

The Neurology of Eye Movements ◽

10.1093/med/9780199969289.003.0009 ◽

2015 ◽

pp. 520-568 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

R. John Leigh ◽

David S. Zee

Keyword(s):

Eye Movements ◽

Developmental Disorders ◽

Laboratory Evaluation ◽

Frontal Eye Field ◽

Pontine Nuclei ◽

Convergence Insufficiency ◽

Eye Field ◽

Phoria Adaptation ◽

Visual Cortical

This chapter reviews the stimuli for vergence, the properties of fusional and accommodative vergence, as well as vergence made in combination with saccades or vestibular eye movements, or blinks. Different properties of horizontal, vertical, and torsional vergence are discussed. Current models are presented to account for interactions between vergence and saccades. The neural substrate for vergence movements is reviewed from ocular motoneurons to the midbrain supraoculomotor area, to visual cortical areas such as MST and frontal eye field, including pontine nuclei, cerebellar vermis, and fastigial nucleus. Adaptive properties of vergence are reviewed, especially phoria adaptation, discussing the role of the cerebellum. The bedside and laboratory evaluation of vergence is summarized and the pathophysiology of disorders of vergence discussed, including developmental disorders associated with childhood strabismus and acquired disorders such as convergence spasm, convergence insufficiency, vergence forms of nystagmus such as convergence-retraction nystagmus, and effects of focal pontine lesions.

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