scholarly journals Changes in activity of fast-spiking interneurons of the monkey striatum during reaching at a visual target

2017 ◽  
Vol 117 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kévin Marche ◽  
Paul Apicella

Recent works highlight the importance of local inhibitory interneurons in regulating the function of the striatum. In particular, fast-spiking interneurons (FSIs), which likely correspond to a subgroup of GABAergic interneurons, have been involved in the control of movement by exerting strong inhibition on striatal output pathways. However, little is known about the exact contribution of these presumed interneurons in movement preparation, initiation, and execution. We recorded the activity of FSIs in the striatum of monkeys as they performed reaching movements to a visual target under two task conditions: one in which the movement target was presented at unsignaled left or right locations, and another in which advance information about target location was available, thus allowing monkeys to react faster. Modulations of FSI activity around the initiation of movement (53% of 55 neurons) consisted mostly of increases reaching maximal firing immediately before or, less frequently, after movement onset. Another subset of FSIs showed decreases in activity during movement execution. Rarely did movement-related changes in FSI firing depend on response direction and movement speed. Modulations of FSI activity occurring relatively early in relation to movement initiation were more influenced by the preparation for movement, compared with those occurring later. Conversely, FSI activity remained unaffected, as monkeys were preparing a movement toward a specific location and instead moved to the opposite direction when the trigger occurred. These results provide evidence that changes in activity of presumed GABAergic interneurons of the primate striatum could make distinct contributions to processes involved in movement generation. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We explored the functional contributions of striatal fast-spiking interneurons (FSIs), presumed GABAergic interneurons, to distinct steps of movement generation in monkeys performing a reaching task. The activity of individual FSIs was modulated before and during the movement, consisting mostly of increased in firing rates. Changes in activity also occurred during movement preparation. We interpret this variety of modulation types at different moments of task performance as reflecting differential FSI control over distinct phases of movement.

1992 ◽  
Vol 67 (6) ◽  
pp. 1417-1427 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. L. Gottlieb ◽  
M. L. Latash ◽  
D. M. Corcos ◽  
T. J. Liubinskas ◽  
G. C. Agarwal

1. Normal human subjects made discrete elbow flexions in the horizontal plane under different task conditions of initial or final position, inertial loading, or instruction about speed. We measured joint angle, acceleration, and electromyographic signals (EMGs) from two agonist and two antagonist muscles. 2. For many of the experimental tasks, the latency of the antagonist EMG burst was strongly correlated with parameters of the first agonist EMG burst defined by a single equation, expressed in terms of the agonist's hypothetical excitation pulse. Latency is proportional to the ratio of pulse duration to pulse intensity, making it proportional to movement distance and inertial load and inversely proportional to planned movement speed. However, these rules are not sufficient to define the timing of every possible single joint movement. 3. For movements described by the speed-insensitive strategy, the quantity of both antagonist and agonist muscle activity can be uniformly associated with selected kinetic measures that incorporate muscle force-velocity relations. 4. For movements collectively described by the speed-sensitive strategy, (i.e., that have direct or indirect constraints on speed), no single rule can describe all the combinations of agonist-antagonist coordination that are used to perform these diverse tasks. 5. Estimates of joint viscosity were made by calculating the amount of velocity-dependent torque used to terminate movements on target. These estimates are similar to those that have previously been made of limb viscosity during postural maintenance. They imply that a significant component of muscle activity must be used to overcome these forces. 6. These and previous results are all consistent with a dual-strategy hypothesis for those single-joint movements that are sufficiently fast to require pulse-like muscle activation patterns. The major features of such patterns (pulse intensities, durations, and latencies) are determined by central commands programmed in advance of movement initiation. The selection between speed-insensitive or speed-sensitive rules of motoneuron pool excitation is implicitly specified by the nature of speed constraints of the movement task.


2017 ◽  
Vol 108 ◽  
pp. 100-114 ◽  
Author(s):  
Feng Gu ◽  
Isabel Parada ◽  
Fran Shen ◽  
Judith Li ◽  
Alberto Bacci ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (51) ◽  
pp. e2114549118
Author(s):  
Ricardo Martins Merino ◽  
Carolina Leon-Pinzon ◽  
Walter Stühmer ◽  
Martin Möck ◽  
Jochen F. Staiger ◽  
...  

Fast oscillations in cortical circuits critically depend on GABAergic interneurons. Which interneuron types and populations can drive different cortical rhythms, however, remains unresolved and may depend on brain state. Here, we measured the sensitivity of different GABAergic interneurons in prefrontal cortex under conditions mimicking distinct brain states. While fast-spiking neurons always exhibited a wide bandwidth of around 400 Hz, the response properties of spike-frequency adapting interneurons switched with the background input’s statistics. Slowly fluctuating background activity, as typical for sleep or quiet wakefulness, dramatically boosted the neurons’ sensitivity to gamma and ripple frequencies. We developed a time-resolved dynamic gain analysis and revealed rapid sensitivity modulations that enable neurons to periodically boost gamma oscillations and ripples during specific phases of ongoing low-frequency oscillations. This mechanism predicts these prefrontal interneurons to be exquisitely sensitive to high-frequency ripples, especially during brain states characterized by slow rhythms, and to contribute substantially to theta-gamma cross-frequency coupling.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bradly Alicea ◽  
Corey Bohil ◽  
Frank Biocca ◽  
Charles Owen

Our objective was to focus on linkages between the process of learning and memory and the placement of objects within an array of targets in a virtual workspace. Participants were instructed to place virtual objects serially within a three-dimensional target array. One phase presented each target sequentially, and required participants to make timed ballistic arm movements. The other phase presented all nine targets simultaneously, which required ballistic arm movement towards the correct target location as recalled from the learning phase. Movement time and accuracy were assessed using repeated-measures ANOVA, a hierarchical cluster analysis, and a multiple linear regression. Collectively, this revealed numerous speed and accuracy advantages and disadvantages for various positional combinations. Upper positions universally yielded longer movement times and larger error measurements. Individual ability for mental rotation combined with task learning over a fixed training interval was found to predict accuracy for specific locations. The prediction that location influences movement speed and accuracy was supported, but with some caveats. These results may be particularly useful in the design of instructor stations and other hybrid physical-virtual workspaces.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan M. Keefe ◽  
Emilia Pokta ◽  
Viola S. Störmer

AbstractAttention may be oriented exogenously (i.e., involuntarily) to the location of salient stimuli, resulting in improved perception. However, it is unknown whether exogenous attention improves perception by facilitating processing of attended information, suppressing processing of unattended information, or both. To test this question, we measured behavioral performance and cue-elicited neural changes in the electroencephalogram as participants (N = 19) performed a task in which a spatially non-predictive auditory cue preceded a visual target. Critically, this cue was either presented at a peripheral target location or from the center of the screen, allowing us to isolate spatially specific attentional activity. We find that both behavior and attention-mediated changes in visual-cortical activity are enhanced at the location of a cue prior to the onset of a target, but that behavior and neural activity at an unattended target location are equivalent to that following a central cue that does not direct attention (i.e., baseline). These results suggest that exogenous attention operates solely via facilitation of information at an attended location.


2019 ◽  
Vol 122 (5) ◽  
pp. 1894-1908 ◽  
Author(s):  
Isabel S. Glover ◽  
Stuart N. Baker

The reticulospinal tract plays an important role in primate upper limb function, but methods for assessing its activity are limited. One promising approach is to measure rapid visual responses (RVRs) in arm muscle activity during a visually cued reaching task; these may arise from a tecto-reticulospinal pathway. We investigated whether changes in reticulospinal excitability can be assessed noninvasively using RVRs, by pairing the visual stimuli of the reaching task with electrical stimulation of the median nerve, galvanic vestibular stimulation, or loud sounds, all of which are known to activate the reticular formation. Surface electromyogram (EMG) recordings were made from the right deltoid of healthy human subjects as they performed fast reaching movements toward visual targets. Stimuli were delivered up to 200 ms before target appearance, and RVR was quantified as the EMG amplitude in a window 75–125 ms after visual target onset. Median nerve, vestibular, and auditory stimuli all consistently facilitated the RVRs, as well as reducing the latency of responses. We propose that this facilitation reflects modulation of tecto-reticulospinal excitability, which is consistent with the idea that the amplitude of RVRs can be used to assess changes in brain stem excitability noninvasively in humans. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Short-latency responses in arm muscles evoked during a visually driven reaching task have previously been proposed to be tecto-reticulospinal in origin. We demonstrate that these responses can be facilitated by pairing the appearance of a visual target with stimuli that activate the reticular formation: median nerve, vestibular, and auditory stimuli. We propose that this reflects noninvasive measurement and modulation of reticulospinal excitability.


2017 ◽  
Vol 118 ◽  
pp. 102-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Boddum ◽  
Charlotte Hougaard ◽  
Julie Xiao-Ying Lin ◽  
Nadia Lybøl von Schoubye ◽  
Henrik Sindal Jensen ◽  
...  

1993 ◽  
Vol 70 (4) ◽  
pp. 1578-1584 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. DiZio ◽  
C. E. Lathan ◽  
J. R. Lackner

1. In the oculobrachial illusion, a target light attached to the unseen stationary hand is perceived as moving and changing spatial position when illusory motion of the forearm is elicited by brachial muscle vibration. Our goal was to see whether we could induce apparent motion and displacement of two retinally fixed targets in opposite directions by the use of oculobrachial illusions. 2. We vibrated both biceps brachii, generating illusory movements of the two forearms in opposite directions, and measured any associated changes in perceived distance between target lights on the unseen stationary hands. The stability of visual fixation of one of the targets was also measured. 3. The seen distance between the stationary targets increased significantly when vibration induced an illusory increase in felt distance between the hands, both with binocular and monocular viewing. 4. Subjects maintained fixation accuracy equally well during vibration-induced illusory increases in visual target separation and in a no-vibration control condition. Fixation errors were not correlated with the extent or direction of illusory visual separation. 5. These findings indicate that brachial muscle spindle signals can contribute to an independent representation of felt target location in head-centric coordinates that can be interrelated with a visual representation of target location generated by retinal and oculomotor signals. 6. A model of how these representations are interrelated is proposed, and its relation to other intersensory interactions is discussed.


2014 ◽  
Vol 111 (1) ◽  
pp. 128-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ulrike Hammerbeck ◽  
Nada Yousif ◽  
Richard Greenwood ◽  
John C. Rothwell ◽  
Jörn Diedrichsen

How does the motor system choose the speed for any given movement? Many current models assume a process that finds the optimal balance between the costs of moving fast and the rewards of achieving the goal. Here, we show that such models also need to take into account a prior representation of preferred movement speed, which can be changed by prolonged practice. In a time-constrained reaching task, human participants made 25-cm reaching movements within 300, 500, 700, or 900 ms. They were then trained for 3 days to execute the movement at either the slowest (900-ms) or fastest (300-ms) speed. When retested on the 4th day, movements executed under all four time constraints were biased toward the speed of the trained movement. In addition, trial-to-trial variation in speed of the trained movement was significantly reduced. These findings are indicative of a use-dependent mechanism that biases the selection of speed. Reduced speed variability was also associated with reduced errors in movement amplitude for the fast training group, which generalized nearly fully to a new movement direction. In contrast, changes in perpendicular error were specific to the trained direction. In sum, our results suggest the existence of a relatively stable but modifiable prior of preferred movement speed that influences the choice of movement speed under a range of task constraints.


2002 ◽  
Vol 87 (4) ◽  
pp. 2190-2194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Enrico Bracci ◽  
Diego Centonze ◽  
Giorgio Bernardi ◽  
Paolo Calabresi

The striatum is the main recipient of dopaminergic innervation. Striatal projection neurons are controlled by cholinergic and GABAergic interneurons. The effects of dopamine on projection neurons and cholinergic interneurons have been described. Its action on GABAergic interneurons, however, is still unknown. We studied the effects of dopamine on fast-spiking (FS) GABAergic interneurons in vitro, with intracellular recordings. Bath application of dopamine elicited a depolarization accompanied by an increase in membrane input resistance (an effect that persisted in the presence of tetrodotoxin) and action-potential discharge. These effects were mimicked by the D1-like dopamine receptor agonist SKF38393 but not by the D2-like agonist quinpirole. Evoked corticostriatal glutamatergic synaptic currents were not affected by dopamine. Conversely, GABAergic currents evoked by intrastriatal stimulation were reversibly depressed by dopamine and D2-like, but not D1-like, agonists. Cocaine elicited effects similar to those of dopamine on membrane potential and synaptic currents. These results show that endogenous dopamine exerts a dual excitatory action on FS interneurons, by directly depolarizing them (through D1-like receptors) and by reducing their synaptic inhibition (through presynaptic D2-like receptors).


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