STATIC AND DYNAMIC ORGANIZATION OF PRIMATE MOTOR CORTEX

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：本项目的目标 有两个折叠。 首先，计划中的实验将继续进行， 运动皮层在技能学习和操作中的作用 自愿伸展运动。 第二个密切相关的目标是 识别神经元的扩展信息编码能力 参与这些行为的人群。 这些实验将特别 研究猴子运动皮层中的单个神经元和神经元群体 在运动学习期间获得任务特定特征组合。 的 实验检查了三个额叶运动区，其中包含神经元， 不同的特征编码能力：辅助运动皮层 (SMA)，与学习的运动序列相关;运动前区（PMA）， 与习得的感觉运动关联相关;和主要运动 皮质（MI），与运动方向相关。 要检查任务如何执行，请执行以下操作： 特征被获取并组合成运动动作的组件，我们将 同时记录来自MI、PMA、SMA或 这些区域的组合，如猴子执行一个很好的学习行动， 然后采取新的行动。 两个实验的继续需要 学习感觉和运动功能的组合或运动功能的加入 按顺序排列的组件。 用于实验1、感觉运动适应， 猴子学会了一种新的任意映射， 已知的运动 用于实验2、运动序列学习，猴子学会 将联合收割机学习的组件臂运动组合成序列。 纵向 对多个同时记录行为猴子神经元的研究是 通过开发新的长期可植入电极阵列 在这个项目中。 该分析将表征以下物质的稳定性： 在单细胞放电率和种群中的现有特征码， 细胞和群体获得新特征组合的能力， 由种群相互作用提供的扩展编码。 添加信息 将使用以下方法评价群体相互作用中可获得的信息， 合并仅在 同时记录细胞群。 单细胞鉴定和 人口对习得运动动作的贡献是重要的一步 有助于揭示大脑皮层的编码原理， 来确定大脑皮层是如何参与学习新行为的。 的 所获得的结果还可以揭示一种获得真实的时间控制信号的方法 可以用来帮助神经功能受损的 个体

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from applicant's abstract): The goals of this project are two fold. First, the planned experiments will continue our investigation of the role of motor cortex in learning and performing skilled voluntary reaching movements. The second, closely related goal is to identify the extended information coding capabilities of neuronal populations engaged in these behaviors. The experiments will specifically examine how single neurons and neuron populations in monkey motor cortex acquire task specific feature combinations during motor learning. The experiments examine three frontal motor areas, which contain neurons with different feature coding capabilities: the supplementary motor cortex (SMA), associated with learned movement sequences; the premotor area (PMA), associated with learned sensorimotor associations; and the primary motor cortex (MI), associated with movement direction. To examine how task features are acquired and combined into components of a motor action we will record simultaneously from multiple single neurons in MI, PMA, SMA or combinations of these areas, as monkeys perform a well learned action and then acquire new actions. The continuation of two experiments that require learning sensory and motor features combinations or the joining of motor components into sequences is planned. For Exp. 1, sensorimotor adaptation, monkeys learn a new arbitrary mapping between a familiar sensory cue and a known movement. For Exp. 2, motor sequence learning, monkeys learn to combine learned component arm movements into sequences. Longitudinal studies of multiple, simultaneously recorded neurons in behaving monkeys is made possible by new chronically implantable electrode arrays developed within this project. The analysis will characterize the stability of existing feature codes in single cell firing rate and populations, the ability for cells and populations to acquire new feature combinations and the extended coding provided by population interactions. Added information available from population interactions will be evaluated using methods that incorporate temporal or covariance information available only in the simultaneously recorded cell group. Identification of single cell and population contributions to learned motor actions is an important step towards revealing general cortical encoding principles and should also help to establish how the cortex participates in learning new behaviors. The results obtained may also reveal a means to obtain real time control signals from neural population that can be used in assisting neurologically impaired individuals.