RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Conservation of preparatory neural events regardless of how movement is initiated
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 189035
DO 10.1101/189035
A1 Antonio H. Lara
A1 Gamaleldin F. Elsayed
A1 John P. Cunningham
A1 Mark M. Churchland
YR 2017
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2017/09/14/189035.abstract
AB Voluntary movement is believed to be preceded by a preparatory stage. Evidence arises from experiments where a delay separates instruction and execution cues. While this sequence emulates some real-world situations (e.g., swatting a fly upon landing) movements are commonly made at a moment of one’s choosing (reaching for a coffee cup) or are made reactively (intercepting a falling cup). To ascertain whether neural events are conserved across such contexts, we examined motor cortex population-level responses in monkeys when reaches were initiated either after an imposed delay, at a self-chosen time, or reactively with very low latency. We found that the same preparatory and movement-related events were conserved. However, preparation was temporally flexible and could be remarkably brief. Our findings support the existing hypothesis that preparation is an obligatory stage that achieves a consistent state prior to movement. Yet our results reveal that preparation can unfold more rapidly than previously supposed.