Feature Interactions Enable Decoding of Sensorimotor Transformations for Goal-Directed Movement

Abstract

Neurophysiology and neuroimaging evidence shows that the brain represents multiple environmental and body-related features to compute transformations from sensory input to motor output. However, it is unclear how these features interact during goal-directed movement. To investigate this issue, we examined the representations of sensory and motor features of human hand movements within the left-hemisphere motor network. In a rapid event-related fMRI design, we measured cortical activity as participants performed right-handed movements at the wrist, with either of two postures and two amplitudes, to move a cursor to targets at different locations. Using a multivoxel analysis technique with rigorous generalization tests, we reliably distinguished representations of task-related features (primarily target location, movement direction, and posture) in multiple regions. In particular, we identified an interaction between target location and movement direction in the superior parietal lobule, which may underlie a transformation from the location of the target in space to a movement vector. In addition, we found an influence of posture on primary motor, premotor, and parietal regions. Together, these results reveal the complex interactions between different sensory and motor features that drive the computation of sensorimotor transformations.

Directional tuning for eye and arm movements in overlapping regions in human posterior parietal cortex

“…These observations are in agreement with previous monkey studies ( Battaglia-Mayer et al 2001;Georgopoulos et al 1986Georgopoulos et al , 1982Johnson et al 1996;Stevenson et al 2011), and with human fMRI adaptation and multivariate pattern analysis studies (Eisenberg et al 2010;Fabbri et al 2010Fabbri et al , 2014Lingnau et al 2012). Likewise, Barany et al (2014) were able to decode both the direction of arm movements and the target location in SPL, supporting a role of this region in sensory-motor transformations. It should be noted that posterior parietal cortex in monkey and humans is modulated by wrist orientation (Fattori et al, 2009;Breveglieri et al, 2017;Monaco et al, 2011).…”

Changes in the theta band coherence during motor task after hand immobilization

“…Our results indicate greater coupling between the intra-hemispheric derivations, with less coupling for the P3-P4 derivations, meaning that the used intervention promoted inter-hemispheric coherence reduction in the parietal region. In addition to this, our findings can be related to the study by Catalan [ 65 ] and by Barany [ 66 ], who have defined the important role of the parietal cortex in the hand movement processing. The authors suggest that training promotes an involvement of these regions in motor program storing.…”

Effector-Invariant Movement Encoding in the Human Motor System

“…Visual and motor ROIs were defined a priori according to a combination of anatomical and functional criteria in the native space of each subject. We identified seven commonly reported visual, visuomotor, and motor ROIs (Gallivan et al, 2011;Vesia and Crawford, 2012;Barany et al, 2014;Haar et al, 2015) by selecting 150 continuous functional voxels with the strongest activation during movements of the contralateral arm to the four targets. The ROIs were located in the following anatomical areas: early visual cortex (Vis), occipital pole and calcarine sulcus; superior parieto-occipital cortex (SPOC), superior portion of the parieto-occipital sulcus; inferior parietal lobule (IPL), dorsal portion of the angular gyrus and the middle segment of the intraparietal sulcus; superior parietal lobule (SPL), anterior portion of the superior parietal lobule, superior to the IPS and slightly posterior to the postcentral sulcus; M1, anterior bank of the central sulcus in the hand knob area; dorsal premotor cortex (PMd), junction of superior frontal sulcus and precentral sulcus; supplementary motor area (SMA), medial wall of the superior frontal gyrus, anterior to the central sulcus, posterior to the vertical projection of the anterior commissure.…”