The roles of monkey M1 neuron classes in movement preparation and execution

Kaufman, M. T., Churchland, M. M., Shenoy, K. V. (May 2013) The roles of monkey M1 neuron classes in movement preparation and execution. Journal of Neurophysiology, 110 (4). pp. 817-825. ISSN 00223077

URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23699057
DOI: 10.1152/jn.00892.2011

Abstract

The motor cortices exhibit substantial activity while preparing movements, yet the arm remains still during preparation. We investigated whether a subpopulation of presumed inhibitory neurons in primary motor cortex (M1) might be involved in "gating" motor output during preparation, while permitting output during movement. This hypothesis predicts a release of inhibition just before movement onset. In data from M1 of two monkeys, we did not find evidence for this hypothesis: few neurons exhibited a clear pause during movement, and these were at the tail end of a broad distribution. We then identified a subpopulation likely to be enriched for inhibitory interneurons, using their waveform shapes. We found that the firing rates of this subpopulation tended to increase during movement instead of decreasing as predicted by the M1 gating model. No clear subset that might implement an inhibitory gate was observed. Together with previous evidence against upstream inhibitory mechanisms in premotor cortex, this provides evidence against an inhibitory "gate" for motor output in cortex. Instead, it appears that some other mechanism must likely exist. © 2013 the American Physiological Society.

Item Type: Paper
Uncontrolled Keywords: Cell type Gating Interneurons Motor cortex Pyramidal cells
Subjects: organism description > animal behavior
organism description > animal > mammal > primates > monkey
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
organs, tissues, organelles, cell types and functions > cell types and functions > cell types > neurons
CSHL Authors:
Communities: CSHL labs > Churchland lab
Depositing User: Matt Covey
Date: 8 May 2013
Date Deposited: 17 Sep 2013 19:55
Last Modified: 17 Sep 2013 19:55
PMCID: PMC3742981
Related URLs:
URI: https://repository.cshl.edu/id/eprint/28590

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