Parallel processing of serial movements in prefrontal cortex
AUTOR(ES)
Averbeck, Bruno B.
FONTE
The National Academy of Sciences
RESUMO
A key idea in Lashley's formulation of the problem of serial order in behavior is the postulated neural representation of all serial elements before the action begins. We studied this question by recording the activity of individual neurons simultaneously in small ensembles in prefrontal cortex while monkeys copied geometrical shapes shown on a screen. Monkeys drew the shapes as sequences of movement segments, and these segments were associated with distinct patterns of neuronal ensemble activity. Here we show that these patterns were present during the time preceding the actual drawing. The rank of the strength of representation of a segment in the neuronal population during this time, as assessed by discriminant analysis, predicted the serial position of the segment in the motor sequence. An analysis of errors in copying and their neural correlates supplied additional evidence for this code and provided a neural basis for Lashley's hypothesis that errors in motor sequences would be most likely to occur when executing elements that had prior representations of nearly equal strength.
ACESSO AO ARTIGO
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=130605Documentos Relacionados
- Functional Dissociations of Risk and Reward Processing in the Medial Prefrontal Cortex
- Serial pathways from primate prefrontal cortex to autonomic areas may influence emotional expression
- Prefrontal cortex is critical for contextual processing: evidence from brain lesions
- The processing of human ballistic movements explored by stimulation over the cortex.
- The role of prefrontal cortex and posterior parietal cortex in task switching