Department of Physiological Sciences, University of Catania, viale Andrea Doria 6, Catania, Italy.
Cerebellum. 2010 Mar;9(1):103-10. doi: 10.1007/s12311-009-0149-x.
Neural representations of limb movement kinematic parameters are common among central nervous system structures involved in motor control, such as the interpositus nucleus of the cerebellum. Much experimental evidence indicates that neurons in the interpositus may encode limb kinematic parameters both during active, voluntary actions and during limb motion imposed passively, which entrains only sensory afferents. With respect to the sensory processing of information related to movement kinematics, we show that interpositus neuronal activity can parse out the directional from the scalar component (i.e., the movement speed) of the velocity vector. Moreover, a differential role for the anterior and posterior portion of interpositus in encoding these parameters emerged from these data, since the activity of the posterior interpositus was specifically associated to changes of movement speed. Limb movement representations in the interpositus nucleus may be instrumental for the control of goal-directed movements such as shaping hand during grasping or precise foot placement during gait. Finally, we discuss the idea that sensory information about the movement kinematics contribute to both feedback and anticipatory processes for limb movement control.
肢体运动运动学参数的神经表现常见于参与运动控制的中枢神经系统结构中，例如小脑中间核。大量实验证据表明，中间核中的神经元在主动、自愿运动期间以及被动施加的肢体运动期间都可以编码肢体运动学参数，而被动施加的运动仅涉及感觉传入。关于与运动运动学相关的信息的感觉处理，我们表明，中间核神经元的活动可以从速度矢量的标量分量（即运动速度）中解析出方向分量。此外，来自这些数据的中间核前部和后部在编码这些参数方面的作用存在差异，因为后中间核的活动与运动速度的变化特别相关。中间核核中的肢体运动表现可能对目标导向运动的控制至关重要，例如在抓握期间塑造手或在行走期间精确放置脚。最后，我们讨论了关于运动运动学的感觉信息有助于肢体运动控制的反馈和预测过程的观点。
