Distributed task-specific processing of somatosensory feedback for voluntary motor control

Elife. 2016 Apr 14:5:e13141. doi: 10.7554/eLife.13141.

Abstract

Corrective responses to limb disturbances are surprisingly complex, but the neural basis of these goal-directed responses is poorly understood. Here we show that somatosensory feedback is transmitted to many sensory and motor cortical regions within 25 ms of a mechanical disturbance applied to the monkey's arm. When limb feedback was salient to an ongoing motor action (task engagement), neurons in parietal area 5 immediately (~25 ms) increased their response to limb disturbances, whereas neurons in other regions did not alter their response until 15 to 40 ms later. In contrast, initiation of a motor action elicited by a limb disturbance (target selection) altered neural responses in primary motor cortex ~65 ms after the limb disturbance, and then in dorsal premotor cortex, with no effect in parietal regions until 150 ms post-perturbation. Our findings highlight broad parietofrontal circuits that provide the neural substrate for goal-directed corrections, an essential aspect of highly skilled motor behaviors.

Keywords: computational biology; cortical response; mechanical perturbation; motor control; non-human primates; rhesus macaque; sensory feedback; systems biology; task dependency.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Animals
  • Feedback*
  • Haplorhini
  • Locomotion*
  • Nerve Net / physiology*
  • Somatosensory Cortex / physiology*

Grants and funding