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Neurons in Primary Motor Cortex Encode External Perturbations during an Orientation Reaching Task

When confronting an abrupt external perturbation force during movement, subjects continuously adjust their behaviors to adapt to changes. Such adaptation is of great importance for realizing flexible motor control in varied environments, but the potential cortical neuronal mechanisms behind it have...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Ma, Yan, Sun, Weiming, Zhou, Nanrun, He, Jiping, Ma, Chaolin
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8470506/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34573147
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091125
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author Ma, Yan
Sun, Weiming
Zhou, Nanrun
He, Jiping
Ma, Chaolin
author_facet Ma, Yan
Sun, Weiming
Zhou, Nanrun
He, Jiping
Ma, Chaolin
author_sort Ma, Yan
collection PubMed
description When confronting an abrupt external perturbation force during movement, subjects continuously adjust their behaviors to adapt to changes. Such adaptation is of great importance for realizing flexible motor control in varied environments, but the potential cortical neuronal mechanisms behind it have not yet been elucidated. Aiming to reveal potential neural control system compensation for external disturbances, we applied an external orientation perturbation while monkeys performed an orientation reaching task and simultaneously recorded the neural activity in the primary motor cortex (M1). We found that a subpopulation of neurons in the primary motor cortex specially created a time-locked activity in response to a “go” signal in the adaptation phase of the impending orientation perturbation and did not react to a “go” signal under the normal task condition without perturbation. Such neuronal activity was amplified as the alteration was processed and retained in the extinction phase; then, the activity gradually faded out. The increases in activity during the adaptation to the orientation perturbation may prepare the system for the impending response. Our work provides important evidence for understanding how the motor cortex responds to external perturbations and should advance research about the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying motor learning and adaptation.
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spelling pubmed-84705062021-09-27 Neurons in Primary Motor Cortex Encode External Perturbations during an Orientation Reaching Task Ma, Yan Sun, Weiming Zhou, Nanrun He, Jiping Ma, Chaolin Brain Sci Article When confronting an abrupt external perturbation force during movement, subjects continuously adjust their behaviors to adapt to changes. Such adaptation is of great importance for realizing flexible motor control in varied environments, but the potential cortical neuronal mechanisms behind it have not yet been elucidated. Aiming to reveal potential neural control system compensation for external disturbances, we applied an external orientation perturbation while monkeys performed an orientation reaching task and simultaneously recorded the neural activity in the primary motor cortex (M1). We found that a subpopulation of neurons in the primary motor cortex specially created a time-locked activity in response to a “go” signal in the adaptation phase of the impending orientation perturbation and did not react to a “go” signal under the normal task condition without perturbation. Such neuronal activity was amplified as the alteration was processed and retained in the extinction phase; then, the activity gradually faded out. The increases in activity during the adaptation to the orientation perturbation may prepare the system for the impending response. Our work provides important evidence for understanding how the motor cortex responds to external perturbations and should advance research about the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying motor learning and adaptation. MDPI 2021-08-25 /pmc/articles/PMC8470506/ /pubmed/34573147 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091125 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ma, Yan
Sun, Weiming
Zhou, Nanrun
He, Jiping
Ma, Chaolin
Neurons in Primary Motor Cortex Encode External Perturbations during an Orientation Reaching Task
title Neurons in Primary Motor Cortex Encode External Perturbations during an Orientation Reaching Task
title_full Neurons in Primary Motor Cortex Encode External Perturbations during an Orientation Reaching Task
title_fullStr Neurons in Primary Motor Cortex Encode External Perturbations during an Orientation Reaching Task
title_full_unstemmed Neurons in Primary Motor Cortex Encode External Perturbations during an Orientation Reaching Task
title_short Neurons in Primary Motor Cortex Encode External Perturbations during an Orientation Reaching Task
title_sort neurons in primary motor cortex encode external perturbations during an orientation reaching task
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8470506/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34573147
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/brainsci11091125
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