Browse
Submit Data
Databases
API
Help

Dataset Information

21 Views

0 Connections

0 Citations

0 Reanalyses

0 Downloads

Omics score: 0

An orderly single-trial organization of population dynamics in premotor cortex predicts behavioral variability.

ABSTRACT: Animals are not simple input-output machines. Their responses to even very similar stimuli are variable. A key, long-standing question in neuroscience is to understand the neural correlates of such behavioral variability. To reveal these correlates, behavior and neural population activity must be related to one another on single trials. Such analysis is challenging due to the dynamical nature of brain function (e.g., in decision making), heterogeneity across neurons and limited sampling of the relevant neural population. By analyzing population recordings from mouse frontal cortex in perceptual decision-making tasks, we show that an analysis approach tailored to the coarse grain features of the dynamics is able to reveal previously unrecognized structure in the organization of population activity. This structure is similar on error and correct trials, suggesting dynamics that may be constrained by the underlying circuitry, is able to predict multiple aspects of behavioral variability and reveals long time-scale modulation of population activity.

SUBMITTER: Wei Z

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6333792 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

ACCESS DATA

Json Xml

Similar Datasets

Single neurons in M1 and premotor cortex directly reflect behavioral interference.

Project description:Some motor tasks, if learned together, interfere with each other's consolidation and subsequent retention, whereas other tasks do not. Interfering tasks are said to employ the same internal model whereas noninterfering tasks use different models. The division of function among internal models, as well as their possible neural substrates, are not well understood. To investigate these questions, we compared responses of single cells in the primary motor cortex and premotor cortex of primates to interfering and noninterfering tasks. The interfering tasks were visuomotor rotation followed by opposing visuomotor rotation. The noninterfering tasks were visuomotor rotation followed by an arbitrary association task. Learning two noninterfering tasks led to the simultaneous formation of neural activity typical of both tasks, at the level of single neurons. In contrast, and in accordance with behavioral results, after learning two interfering tasks, only the second task was successfully reflected in motor cortical single cell activity. These results support the hypothesis that the representational capacity of motor cortical cells is the basis of behavioral interference and division between internal models.

| S-EPMC3299706 | biostudies-literature

Behavioral Context Determines Network State and Variability Dynamics in Monkey Motor Cortex.

Project description:Variability of spiking activity is ubiquitous throughout the brain but little is known about its contextual dependance. Trial-to-trial spike count variability, estimated by the Fano Factor (FF), and within-trial spike time irregularity, quantified by the coefficient of variation (CV), reflect variability on long and short time scales, respectively. We co-analyzed FF and the local coefficient of variation (CV2) in monkey motor cortex comparing two behavioral contexts, movement preparation (wait) and execution (movement). We find that the FF significantly decreases from wait to movement, while the CV2 increases. The more regular firing (expressed by a low CV2) during wait is related to an increased power of local field potential (LFP) beta oscillations and phase locking of spikes to these oscillations. In renewal processes, a widely used model for spiking activity under stationary input conditions, both measures are related as FF ? CV2. This expectation was met during movement, but not during wait where FF ? CV22. Our interpretation is that during movement preparation, ongoing brain processes result in changing network states and thus in high trial-to-trial variability (expressed by a high FF). During movement execution, the network is recruited for performing the stereotyped motor task, resulting in reliable single neuron output. Our interpretation is in the light of recent computational models that generate non-stationary network conditions.

| S-EPMC6052126 | biostudies-literature

Robust neuronal dynamics in premotor cortex during motor planning.

Project description:Neural activity maintains representations that bridge past and future events, often over many seconds. Network models can produce persistent and ramping activity, but the positive feedback that is critical for these slow dynamics can cause sensitivity to perturbations. Here we use electrophysiology and optogenetic perturbations in the mouse premotor cortex to probe the robustness of persistent neural representations during motor planning. We show that preparatory activity is remarkably robust to large-scale unilateral silencing: detailed neural dynamics that drive specific future movements were quickly and selectively restored by the network. Selectivity did not recover after bilateral silencing of the premotor cortex. Perturbations to one hemisphere are thus corrected by information from the other hemisphere. Corpus callosum bisections demonstrated that premotor cortex hemispheres can maintain preparatory activity independently. Redundancy across selectively coupled modules, as we observed in the premotor cortex, is a hallmark of robust control systems. Network models incorporating these principles show robustness that is consistent with data.

| S-EPMC5081260 | biostudies-literature

Orderly compartmental mapping of premotor inhibition in the developing zebrafish spinal cord.

Project description:In vertebrates, faster movements involve the orderly recruitment of different types of spinal motor neurons. However, it is not known how premotor inhibitory circuits are organized to ensure alternating motor output at different movement speeds. We found that different types of commissural inhibitory interneurons in zebrafish form compartmental microcircuits during development that align inhibitory strength and recruitment order. Axonal microcircuits develop first and provide the most potent premotor inhibition during the fastest movements, followed by perisomatic microcircuits, and then dendritic microcircuits that provide the weakest inhibition during the slowest movements. The conversion of a temporal sequence of neuronal development into a spatial pattern of inhibitory connections provides an "ontogenotopic" solution to the problem of shaping spinal motor output at different speeds of movement.

| S-EPMC8229876 | biostudies-literature

History-dependent variability in population dynamics during evidence accumulation in cortex.

Project description:We studied how the posterior parietal cortex combines new information with ongoing activity dynamics as mice accumulate evidence during a virtual navigation task. Using new methods to analyze population activity on single trials, we found that activity transitioned rapidly between different sets of active neurons. Each event in a trial, whether an evidence cue or a behavioral choice, caused seconds-long modifications to the probabilities that govern how one activity pattern transitions to the next, forming a short-term memory. A sequence of evidence cues triggered a chain of these modifications resulting in a signal for accumulated evidence. Multiple distinguishable activity patterns were possible for the same accumulated evidence because representations of ongoing events were influenced by previous within- and across-trial events. Therefore, evidence accumulation need not require the explicit competition between groups of neurons, as in winner-take-all models, but could instead emerge implicitly from general dynamical properties that instantiate short-term memory.

| S-EPMC5127723 | biostudies-literature

Population coding of conditional probability distributions in dorsal premotor cortex.

Project description:Our bodies and the environment constrain our movements. For example, when our arm is fully outstretched, we cannot extend it further. More generally, the distribution of possible movements is conditioned on the state of our bodies in the environment, which is constantly changing. However, little is known about how the brain represents such distributions, and uses them in movement planning. Here, we record from dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and primary motor cortex (M1) while monkeys reach to randomly placed targets. The hand's position within the workspace creates probability distributions of possible upcoming targets, which affect movement trajectories and latencies. PMd, but not M1, neurons have increased activity when the monkey's hand position makes it likely the upcoming movement will be in the neurons' preferred directions. Across the population, PMd activity represents probability distributions of individual upcoming reaches, which depend on rapidly changing information about the body's state in the environment.

| S-EPMC5934453 | biostudies-literature

Single reach plans in dorsal premotor cortex during a two-target task.

Project description:In many situations, we are faced with multiple potential actions, but must wait for more information before knowing which to perform. Movement scientists have long asked whether in these delayed-response situations the brain plans both potential movements simultaneously, or if it simply chooses one and then switches later if necessary. To answer this question, we used simultaneously recorded activity from populations of neurons in macaque dorsal premotor cortex to track moment-by-moment deliberation between two potential reach targets. We found that the neural activity only ever indicated a single-reach plan (with some targets favored more than others), and that initial plans often predicted the monkeys' behavior on both Free-Choice trials and incorrect Cued trials. Our results suggest that premotor cortex plans only one option at a time, and that decisions are strongly influenced by the initial response to the available set of movement options.

| S-EPMC6120937 | biostudies-literature

Injecting Instructions into Premotor Cortex.

Project description:The premotor cortex (PM) receives inputs from parietal cortical areas representing processed visuospatial information, translates that information into programs for particular movements, and communicates those programs to the primary motor cortex (M1) for execution. Consistent with this general function, intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) in the PM of sufficient frequency, amplitude, and duration has been shown to evoke complex movements of the arm and hand that vary systematically depending on the locus of stimulation. Using frequencies and amplitudes too low to evoke muscle activity, however, we found that ICMS in the PM can provide instructions to perform specific reach, grasp, and manipulate movements. These instructed actions were not fixed but rather were learned through associations between the arbitrary stimulation locations and particular movements. Low-amplitude ICMS at different PM locations thus evokes distinguishable experiences that can become associated with specific movements arbitrarily, providing a novel means of injecting information into the nervous system.

| S-EPMC5739962 | biostudies-literature

Individual variability in behavioral flexibility predicts sign-tracking tendency.

Project description:Sign-tracking rats show heightened sensitivity to food- and drug-associated cues, which serve as strong incentives for driving reward seeking. We hypothesized that this enhanced incentive drive is accompanied by an inflexibility when incentive value changes. To examine this we tested rats in Pavlovian outcome devaluation or second-order conditioning prior to the assessment of sign-tracking tendency. To assess behavioral flexibility we trained rats to associate a light with a food outcome. After the food was devalued by pairing with illness, we measured conditioned responding (CR) to the light during an outcome devaluation probe test. The level of CR during outcome devaluation probe test correlated with the rats' subsequent tracking tendency, with sign-tracking rats failing to suppress CR to the light after outcome devaluation. To assess Pavlovian incentive learning, we trained rats on first-order (CS+, CS-) and second-order (SOCS+, SOCS-) discriminations. After second-order conditioning, we measured CR to the second-order cues during a probe test. Second-order conditioning was observed across all rats regardless of tracking tendency. The behavioral inflexibility of sign-trackers has potential relevance for understanding individual variation in vulnerability to drug addiction.

| S-EPMC4630296 | biostudies-literature

Differential neural dynamics underling pragmatic and semantic affordance processing in macaque ventral premotor cortex.

Project description:Premotor neurons play a fundamental role in transforming physical properties of observed objects, such as size and shape, into motor plans for grasping them, hence contributing to "pragmatic" affordance processing. Premotor neurons can also contribute to "semantic" affordance processing, as they can discharge differently even to pragmatically identical objects depending on their behavioural relevance for the observer (i.e. edible or inedible objects). Here, we compared the response of monkey ventral premotor area F5 neurons tested during pragmatic (PT) or semantic (ST) visuomotor tasks. Object presentation responses in ST showed shorter latency and lower object selectivity than in PT. Furthermore, we found a difference between a transient representation of semantic affordances and a sustained representation of pragmatic affordances at both the single neuron and population level. Indeed, responses in ST returned to baseline within 0.5 s whereas in PT they showed the typical sustained visual-to-motor activity during Go trials. In contrast, during No-go trials, the time course of pragmatic and semantic information processing was similar. These findings suggest that premotor cortex generates different dynamics depending on pragmatic and semantic information provided by the context in which the to-be-grasped object is presented.

| S-EPMC6691108 | biostudies-literature

OmicsDI is part of the ELIXIR infrastructure

OmicsDI is an Elixir interoperability service. Learn more ›

Tweets

OmicsDI Databases

PRIDE
PeptideAtlas
MassIVE
JPOST Repository
Physiome Model Repository

EGA
EVA
ENA
LINCS
PAXDB
Cell Collective

MetaboLights
Metabolomics Workbench
MetabolomeExpress
GNPS
BioModels
FAIRDOMHub

ArrayExpress
dbGaP
ExpressionAtlas
GEO
NODE

Information

Databases
Help
API
Contact us
Code on GitHub
Terms of use
Submit Data