Decision-making in the ventral premotor cortex harbinger of action

Abstract

Although the premotor (PM) cortex was once viewed as the substrate of pure motor functions, soon it was realized that it was involved in higher brain functions. By this it is meant that the PM cortex functions would better be explained as motor set, preparation for limb movement, or sensory guidance of movement rather than solely by a fixed link to motor performance. These findings, together with a better knowledge of the PM cortex histology and hodology in human and non-human primates prompted quantitative studies of this area combining behavioral tasks with electrophysiological recordings. In addition, the exploration of the PM cortex neurons with qualitative methods also suggested its participation in higher functions. Behavioral choices frequently depend on temporal cues, which together with knowledge of previous outcomes and expectancies are combined to decide and choose a behavioral action. In decision-making the knowledge about the consequences of decisions, either correct or incorrect, is fundamental because they can be used to adapt future behavior. The neuronal correlates of a decision process have been described in several cortical areas of primates. Among them, there is evidence that the monkey ventral premotor (PMv) cortex, an anatomical and physiological well-differentiated area of the PM cortex, supports both perceptual decisions and performance monitoring. Here we review the evidence that the steps in a decision-making process are encoded in the firing rate of the PMv neurons. This provides compelling evidence suggesting that the PMv is involved in the use of recent and long-term sensory memory to decide, execute, and evaluate the outcomes of the subjects’ choices.

Spatiotemporal characteristics of electrocortical brain activity during mental calculation

“…This notion corresponds with other recent reports that suggest that the posterior DLPFC and premotor structures are involved in transforming sensation into action, i.e. the use of sensory information in a complete cascade of decision making, execution and evaluation of the outcome of the decision [Acuña et al, ; Heekeren et al, ; Pardo‐Vazquez et al, , ; Romo et al, ]. Whether or not the relatively large groups of electrodes assigned to both the PreCG/MFG1 (ROI4) and PreCG/MFG2 (ROI16) can be further distributed into separate subfunctions remains to be determined.…”

Eye-head-hand coordination during visually guided reaches in head-unrestrained macaques

“…Whereas, ventral premotor area (PMv) an anatomical and physiological well differentiated area in premotor cortex supports both perceptual decisions and performance monitoring. A study suggested that PMv is involved in the use of recent and long term sensory memory to decide, execute and evaluate the outcomes of the subjects' choices (Pardo-Vazquez et al 2011).…”

Asymmetric Functional Connectivity of the Contra- and Ipsilateral Secondary Somatosensory Cortex during Tactile Object Recognition

“…In addition, the right preCG and MFG included in the left SII seed connective network was probably the premotor cortex. This region was associated with the whole perceptual decision processing, including maintaining the first stimuli in working memory, with comparison between the two stimuli and motor commands expressing the result of the comparison (for review see Pardo-Vazquez et al, 2011 ). Therefore, we suggest that the psychophysiological interaction of left SII, left SI and right preCG was more correlated to the tactile angle perception and comparison process.…”