Distinct population code for movement kinematics and changes of ongoing movements in human subthalamic nucleus
- New York University, United States
- NYU Langone Health, United States
Abstract
The subthalamic nucleus (STN) is theorized to globally suppress movement through connections with downstream basal ganglia structures. Current theories are supported by increased STN activity when subjects withhold an uninitiated action plan, but a critical test of these theories requires studying STN responses when an ongoing action is replaced with an alternative. We perform this test in subjects with Parkinson's disease using an extended reaching task where the movement trajectory changes mid-action. We show that STN activity decreases during action switches, contrary to prevalent theories. Further, beta oscillations in the STN local field potential, which are associated with movement inhibition, do not show increased power or spiking entrainment during switches. We report an inhomogeneous population neural code in STN, with one sub-population encoding movement kinematics and direction and another encoding unexpected action switches. We suggest an elaborate neural code in STN that contributes to planning actions and changing the plans.
Data availability
All raw and processed data has been uploaded to Dryad. DOI: 10.5061/dryad.2jm63xsq2
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Distinct population code for movement kinematics and changes of ongoing movements in human subthalamic nucleushttps://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/.
Article and author information
Author details
Funding
Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain (542997,543009)
- Roozbeh Kiani
McKnight Scholar Award
- Roozbeh Kiani
Pew Scholarship in the Biomedical Sciences
- Roozbeh Kiani
National Institutes of Mental Health R01 (MH109180-01)
- Roozbeh Kiani
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Ethics
Human subjects: Subjects signed informed consent including consent to publish. The study protocol was approved by the NYU School of Medicine Office of Science and Research Institutional Review Board. Study ID: S16-01855
Copyright
© 2021, London et al.
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.
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Distinct population code for movement kinematics and changes of ongoing movements in human subthalamic nucleus
eLife 10:e64893.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.64893
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