Movement initiation and grasp representation in premotor and primary motor cortex mirror neurons

Abstract
Data availability
Article and author information
Metrics

Abstract

Pyramidal tract neurons (PTNs) within macaque rostral ventral premotor cortex (F5) and primary motor cortex (M1) provide direct input to spinal circuitry and are critical for skilled movement control. Contrary to initial hypotheses, they can also be active during action observation, in the absence of any movement. A population-level understanding of this phenomenon is currently lacking. We recorded from single neurons, including identified PTNs, in M1 (n=187), and area F5 (n=115) as two adult male macaques executed, observed, or withheld (NoGo) reach-to-grasp actions. F5 maintained a similar representation of grasping actions during both execution and observation. In contrast, although many individual M1 neurons were active during observation, M1 population activity was distinct from execution, and more closely aligned to NoGo activity, suggesting this activity contributes to withholding of self-movement. M1 and its outputs may dissociate the initiation of movement from the representation of grasp in order to flexibly guide behaviour.

Data availability

Matlab codes and data to reproduce Figures 5-7 and Figure 9 are publicly available at https://github.com/sjjerjian/grasp-mirror-neurons.

Article and author information

Author details

Steven Jack Jerjian

Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom

For correspondence
steven.jerjian.11@ucl.ac.uk

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.
Maneesh Sahani

Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, UCL, London, United Kingdom

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0001-5560-3341
Alexander Kraskov

Department of Clinical and Movement Neurosciences, UCL Institute of Neurology, London, United Kingdom

For correspondence
a.kraskov@ucl.ac.uk

Competing interests
The authors declare that no competing interests exist.

"This ORCID iD identifies the author of this article:" 0000-0002-3576-4719

Funding

Wellcome (102849/Z/13/Z)

Alexander Kraskov

Brain Research Trust

Steven Jack Jerjian

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.

Ethics

Animal experimentation: All procedures were designed to minimize discomfort and pain of the animals and were approved by the local Animal Ethics and Welfare Committee and carried out in accordance with the UK Animals (Scientific Procedures) Act (Project Licence 708254). Experiments involved two adult purpose-bred male monkeys (Macaca mulatta, M48 and M49, weighing 12.0kg and 10.5kg, respectively). The monkeys were single-housed based on veterinary advice, in a unit with other rhesus monkeys, with natural light and access to an exercise pen and forage area. Both monkeys gained weight regularly throughout the procedure.

Copyright

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.