Spontaneous activity patterns in human motor cortex replay evoked activity patterns for hand movements

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Neuroscience
• Brain Activity

Background:

• Spontaneous brain activity (resting-state fMRI) correlates with task-evoked activity.
• It remains unclear if spontaneous activity patterns within a cortical region mirror task-evoked patterns.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if spontaneous activity in the motor cortex represents frequently occurring motor patterns.
• To test the hypothesis that daily motor behaviors shape fine-scale activity patterns in the motor cortex.

Main Methods:

• 15 healthy participants underwent fMRI scans during four hand movements (three ecological, one control) and resting states.
• Movement-specific patterns were identified in the primary motor cortex using task data.
• Resting-state patterns were compared to task-defined patterns within the motor cortex and a control visual cortex.

Main Results:

• Spontaneous activity patterns in the motor cortex more closely resembled patterns of ecological (frequent) movements than control (infrequent) movements.
• No difference in pattern similarity was observed for ecological versus control movements in the primary visual cortex.
• These findings suggest that spontaneous brain activity is organized according to behavioral relevance.

Conclusions:

• Spontaneous activity in the human motor cortex forms fine-scale representations linked to frequently performed daily behaviors.
• The motor cortex's spontaneous activity is shaped by the statistics of everyday motor experience.