Mechanisms that allow cortical preparatory activity without inappropriate movement.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 32081130.
- Also identified by DOI 10.7554/eLife.50962 and PMC identifier 7060051.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
We reveal a novel mechanism that explains how preparatory activity can evolve in motor-related cortical areas without prematurely inducing movement. The smooth eye movement region of the frontal eye fields (FEF<sub>SEM</sub>) is a critical node in the neural circuit controlling smooth pursuit eye movement. Preparatory activity evolves in the monkey FEF<sub>SEM</sub> during fixation in parallel with an objective measure of visual-motor gain. We propose that the use of FEF<sub>SEM</sub> output as a gain signal rather than a movement command allows for preparation to progress in pursuit without causing movement. We also show that preparatory modulation of firing rate in FEF<sub>SEM</sub> predicts movement, providing evidence against the 'movement-null' space hypothesis as an explanation of how preparatory activity can progress without movement. Finally, there is a partial reorganization of FEF<sub>SEM</sub> population activity between preparation and movement that would allow for a directionally non-specific component of preparatory visual-motor gain enhancement in pursuit.
Medical subject headings
- Cerebral Cortex
- Eye Movements