The motor cortex uses active suppression to sculpt movement

Darcy M Griffin; Peter L Strick

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abb8395

The motor cortex uses active suppression to sculpt movement

Sci Adv. 2020 Aug 21;6(34):eabb8395. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abb8395. Print 2020 Aug.

Authors

Darcy M Griffin^{1

2

3

4}, Peter L Strick^{5

2

3

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
² Systems Neuroscience Center, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
³ Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁴ University of Pittsburgh Brain Institute, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
⁵ Department of Neurobiology, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, Pittsburgh, PA, USA. strickp@pitt.edu.

Abstract

Even the simplest movements are generated by a remarkably complex pattern of muscle activity. Fast, accurate movements at a single joint are produced by a stereotyped pattern that includes a decrease in any preexisting activity in antagonist muscles. This premovement suppression is necessary to prevent the antagonist muscle from opposing movement generated by the agonist muscle. Here, we provide evidence that the primary motor cortex (M1) sends a command signal that generates this premovement suppression. Thus, output neurons in M1 sculpt complex spatiotemporal patterns of motor output not only by actively turning on muscles but also by actively turning them off.

Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC).

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural

Abstract

Publication types

Grants and funding