Saxena S, Sarma SV, Patel SR, Santaniello S, Eskandar EN, Gale JT. Modulations in Oscillatory Activity of Globus Pallidus Internus Neurons During a Directed Hand Movement Task-A Primary Mechanism for Motor Planning.
Front Syst Neurosci 2019;
13:15. [PMID:
31133824 PMCID:
PMC6524693 DOI:
10.3389/fnsys.2019.00015]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/23/2018] [Accepted: 04/02/2019] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Globus pallidus internus (GPi) neurons in the basal ganglia are traditionally thought to play a significant role in the promotion and suppression of movement via a change in firing rates. Here, we hypothesize that a primary mechanism of movement control by GPi neurons is through specific modulations in their oscillatory patterns. We analyzed neuronal spiking activity of 83 GPi neurons recorded from two healthy nonhuman primates executing a radial center-out motor task. We found that, in directionally tuned neurons, the power in the gamma band is significantly (p < 0.05) greater than that in the beta band (a "cross-over" effect), during the planning stages of movements in their preferred direction. This cross-over effect is not observed in the non-directionally tuned neurons. These data suggest that, during movement planning, information encoding by GPi neurons may be governed by a sudden emergence and suppression of oscillatory activities, rather than simply by a change in average firing rates.
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