STATIC AND DYNAMIC ORGANIZATION OF PRIMATE MOTOR CORTEX

描述(摘自申请者的摘要)：本项目的目标 是两倍的。首先，计划中的实验将继续我们的 运动皮质在学习和操作技能中的作用研究 自愿到达运动。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 从事这些行为的人群。这些实验将具体地 研究猴子运动皮质中单个神经元和神经元群体是如何 在运动学习过程中获得特定任务的特征组合。这个 实验检查了三个额叶运动区，其中包含有 不同的功能编码能力：辅助运动皮质 (SMA)，与习得的运动序列相关；运动前区(PMA)， 与习得的感觉运动联系有关；以及初级运动 大脑皮层(MI)，与运动方向相关。检查任务的执行方式 我们将获取特征并将其组合成运动动作的组件 同时记录MI、PMA、SMA或 这些区域的组合，因为猴子执行一个很好的学习动作和 然后采取新的行动。继续进行两个实验，这需要 学习感觉和运动特征的组合或运动的结合 组件进入序列是有计划的。用于Exp.1、感觉运动适应； 猴子学习了一种新的任意映射，在熟悉的感觉线索和一个 已知的运动。用于Exp.2、学习运动顺序，猴子学习 将学到的手臂动作组合成序列。纵向 对表现良好的猴子的多个同时记录神经元的研究 通过开发新的可长期植入的电极阵列 在这个项目中。这一分析将表征 单细胞放电率和群体中的现有特征代码， 细胞和群体获得新特征组合和 由种群相互作用提供的扩展编码。添加的信息 将使用以下方法评估从种群相互作用中获得的可用资源 合并仅在 同时记录细胞群。单细胞和单细胞鉴定 人口对习得运动动作的贡献是重要的一步 揭示了大脑皮层编码的一般原理，也应该有助于 以确定大脑皮层如何参与学习新的行为。这个 获得的结果还可以揭示一种获得实时控制信号的方法 来自神经群体，可以用来帮助神经受损 个人。

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.