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J Neurophysiol (May 28, 2008). doi:10.1152/jn.90262.2008
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Submitted on January 31, 2008
Revised on April 4, 2008
Accepted on April 28, 2008

Rapid motor responses are appropriately tuned to the metrics of a visuo-spatial task

J Andrew Pruszynski1, Isaac L Kurtzer2, and Stephen H Scott2*

1 Queen's Univesity
2 Queen's University

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: steve{at}biomed.queensu.ca.

Considerable research has established that rapid motor responses (traditionally called reflexes), can be modified by a subject's voluntary goals. Here, we expand on past observations using verbal instructions by defining the voluntary goal via visual target position. This approach allowed us to objectively enforce task-adherence and explore a richer set of variables, such as target direction and distance; metrics that modify voluntary control and we hypothesize will influence rapid motor responses. Our first experiment tested whether upper-limb responses are categorically modulated by target direction by placing targets such that the same perturbation could push the hand into one target and out of the other, a spatial analogue to "resist/yield" verbal instructions. Consistent with these classical results, we found that the short-latency rapid response (R1, 20-45ms) was not modulated by target direction whereas long-latency rapid responses (R2/R3, 45-105ms) were modified in a manner approaching the voluntary response (VOL, 120-180ms). Our second experiment tested whether upper-limb responses are continuously modulated by target distance by distributing five targets along one axis centered on the hand. Here, the long-latency and voluntary response mirrored the task demands by increasing activity in a graded fashion with increasing target distance. Our final experiment explored how upper-limb responses incorporate two-dimensional spatial information by placing targets radially around the hand. Notably, long-latency responses exhibited smooth tuning functions to target direction that were similar to those observed for the voluntary response. Taken together, these results illustrate the flexibility of long-latency rapid responses and emphasize their similarity to later voluntary responses.




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