HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS		QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced] Author: Keyword(s): Year:  Vol:  Page:

This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 98/1/488    most recent 01094.2006v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in ISI Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Umilta, M. A. Articles by Lemon, R. N. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Umilta, M. A. Articles by Lemon, R. N.

Simultaneous Recording of Macaque Premotor and Primary Motor Cortex Neuronal Populations Reveals Different Functional Contributions to Visuomotor Grasp

¹Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London, United Kingdom; and ²Dipartimento di Neuroscienze, Sezione di Fisiologia, Università di Parma, Parma, Italy

Submitted 12 October 2006; accepted in final form 16 February 2007

To understand the relative contributions of primary motor cortex (M1) and area F5 of the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) to visually guided grasp, we made simultaneous multiple electrode recordings from the hand representations of these two areas in two adult macaque monkeys. The monkeys were trained to fixate, reach out and grasp one of six objects presented in a pseudorandom order. In M1 326 task-related neurons, 104 of which were identified as pyramidal tract neurons, and 138 F5 neurons were analyzed as separate populations. All three populations showed activity that distinguished the six objects grasped by the monkey. These three populations responded in a manner that generalized across different sets of objects. F5 neurons showed object/grasp related tuning earlier than M1 neurons in the visual presentation and premovement periods. Also F5 neurons generally showed a greater preference for particular objects/grasps than did M1 neurons. F5 neurons remained tuned to a particular grasp throughout both the premovement and reach-to-grasp phases of the task, whereas M1 neurons showed different selectivity during the different phases. We also found that different types of grasp appear to be represented by different overall levels of activity within the F5-M1 circuit. Altogether these properties are consistent with the notion that F5 grasping-related neurons play a role in translating visual information about the physical properties of an object into the motor commands that are appropriate for grasping, and which are elaborated within M1 for delivery to the appropriate spinal machinery controlling hand and digit muscles.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				U. Castiello and C. Begliomini The Cortical Control of Visually Guided Grasping Neuroscientist, April 1, 2008; 14(2): 157 - 170. [Abstract] [PDF]

				P. H. Thakur, A. J. Bastian, and S. S. Hsiao Multidigit Movement Synergies of the Human Hand in an Unconstrained Haptic Exploration Task J. Neurosci., February 6, 2008; 28(6): 1271 - 1281. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. P. Gardner, K. S. Babu, S. Ghosh, A. Sherwood, and J. Chen Neurophysiology of Prehension. III. Representation of Object Features in Posterior Parietal Cortex of the Macaque Monkey J Neurophysiol, December 1, 2007; 98(6): 3708 - 3730. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]