Marino Patrick J, Bahureksa Lindsay, Fisac Carmen Fernández, Oby Emily R, Smoulder Adam L, Motiwala Asma, Degenhart Alan D, Grigsby Erinn M, Joiner Wilsaan M, Chase Steven M, Yu Byron M, Batista Aaron P
Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
Neuron. 2025 Aug 23. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.07.030.
To generate movements, the brain must combine information about movement goal and body posture. The motor cortex (primary motor cortex [M1]) is a key node for the convergence of these information streams. How are posture and goal signals organized within M1's activity to permit the flexible generation of movement commands? To answer this question, we recorded M1 activity while monkeys performed a variety of tasks with the forearm in a range of postures. We found that posture- and goal-related components of neural population activity were separable and resided in nearly orthogonal subspaces. The posture subspace was stable across tasks. Within each task, neural trajectories for each goal had similar shapes across postures. Our results reveal a simpler organization of posture signals in M1 than previously recognized. The compartmentalization of posture and goal signals might allow the two to be flexibly combined in the service of our broad repertoire of actions.
为了产生动作，大脑必须整合有关动作目标和身体姿势的信息。运动皮层（初级运动皮层[M1]）是这些信息流汇聚的关键节点。姿势和目标信号在M1的活动中是如何组织的，以允许灵活地生成运动指令？为了回答这个问题，我们在猴子以一系列姿势活动前臂执行各种任务时记录了M1的活动。我们发现，神经群体活动中与姿势和目标相关的成分是可分离的，并且存在于几乎正交的子空间中。姿势子空间在不同任务中是稳定的。在每个任务中，每个目标的神经轨迹在不同姿势下具有相似的形状。我们的结果揭示了M1中姿势信号的组织比之前认为的更简单。姿势和目标信号的分隔可能使两者能够灵活组合，以服务于我们广泛的动作库。
