Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, CU027, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy; Behavioral Neuroscience PhD Program, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, CU027, Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
Cortex. 2021 Feb;135:326-340. doi: 10.1016/j.cortex.2020.09.032. Epub 2020 Nov 19.
Primates adopt various strategies to interact with the environment. Yet, no study has examined the effects of behavioural strategies with regard to how movement inhibition is implemented at the neuronal level. We used a modified version of the stop-task by adding an extra signal - termed the Ignore signal - capable of influencing the inhibition of movements only within a specific strategy. We simultaneously recorded multisite neuronal activity from the dorsal premotor (PMd) cortex of macaque monkeys during the task and applied a state-space approach. As a result, we found that movement generation is characterized by neuronal dynamics that evolve between subspaces. When the movement is halted, this evolution is arrested and inverted. Conversely, when the Ignore signal is presented, inversion of the evolution is observed briefly and only when a specific behavioural strategy is adopted. Moreover, neuronal signatures during the inhibitory process were predictive of how PMd processes inhibitory signals, allowing the classification of the resulting behavioural strategy. Our data further corroborate the PMd as a critical node in movement inhibition.
灵长类动物采用各种策略与环境互动。然而，尚无研究探讨行为策略对神经元层面运动抑制的实施的影响。我们使用停止任务的修改版本，通过添加一个额外的信号——称为忽略信号——来影响仅在特定策略内的运动抑制。我们在猴子的背侧运动前皮质（PMd）同时记录多部位神经元活动，并应用状态空间方法。结果表明，运动产生的特征是神经元动力学在子空间之间演变。当运动停止时，这种演变被阻止并反转。相反，当呈现忽略信号时，仅在采用特定行为策略时，才会观察到这种演变的短暂反转。此外，抑制过程中的神经元特征可预测 PMd 如何处理抑制信号，从而允许对产生的行为策略进行分类。我们的数据进一步证实 PMd 是运动抑制的关键节点。
