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Warriner CL, Fageiry S, Saxena S, Costa RM, Miri A. Motor cortical influence relies on task-specific activity covariation. Cell Rep 2022; 40:111427. [PMID: 36170841 PMCID: PMC9536049 DOI: 10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111427] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/13/2021] [Revised: 03/01/2022] [Accepted: 09/08/2022] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
During limb movement, spinal circuits facilitate the alternating activation of antagonistic flexor and extensor muscles. Yet antagonist cocontraction is often required to stabilize joints, like when loads are handled. Previous results suggest that these different muscle activation patterns are mediated by separate flexion- and extension-related motor cortical output populations, while others suggest recruitment of task-specific populations. To distinguish between hypotheses, we developed a paradigm in which mice toggle between forelimb tasks requiring antagonist alternation or cocontraction and measured activity in motor cortical layer 5b. Our results conform to neither hypothesis: consistent flexion- and extension-related activity is not observed across tasks, and no task-specific populations are observed. Instead, activity covariation among motor cortical neurons dramatically changes between tasks, thereby altering the relation between neural and muscle activity. This is also observed specifically for corticospinal neurons. Collectively, our findings indicate that motor cortex drives different muscle activation patterns via task-specific activity covariation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Claire L Warriner
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Samaher Fageiry
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Shreya Saxena
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Center for Theoretical Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Department of Statistics, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Grossman Center for Statistics of the Mind, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Rui M Costa
- Department of Neuroscience, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA; Zuckerman Mind Brain Behavior Institute, Columbia University, New York, NY 10027, USA
| | - Andrew Miri
- Department of Neurobiology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208, USA.
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