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Related Experiment Video

Updated: Jun 28, 2025

Investigating Object Representations in the Macaque Dorsal Visual Stream Using Single-unit Recordings

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Published on: August 1, 2018

Multiplicative joint coding in preparatory activity for reaching sequence in macaque motor cortex.

Tianwei Wang^1,2,3, Yun Chen^1,2,3, Yiheng Zhang^1,2,3

¹Institute of Neuroscience, Key Laboratory of Primate Neurobiology, Center for Excellence in Brain Science and Intelligence Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200031, China.

Nature Communications

|April 11, 2024

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Neural coding in the motor cortex shifts from multiplicative to additive during sequential movements. This discovery sheds light on how the brain plans and executes complex actions.

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Motor Control
Computational Neuroscience

Background:

The motor cortex integrates sensory and cognitive information for movement.
Understanding how the brain codes sequential movements remains a challenge.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the neural mechanisms underlying sequential movement representation in the motor cortex.
To determine how neuronal activity represents multiple movement elements during task preparation and execution.

Main Methods:

Recorded neuronal activity from the motor cortex of monkeys using micro-electrode arrays and single electrodes.
Monkeys performed a double-reach task guided by memorized cues.
Analyzed neural data to identify coding strategies during movement preparation and execution.
Utilized recurrent neural networks trained on the double-reach task to model neural activity.

Main Results:

A multiplicative coding component was identified during the preparation phase, jointly tuning to impending and subsequent reaches.
This coding mechanism transitioned to an additive manner during movement execution.
Similar multiplicative joint coding spontaneously emerged in trained recurrent neural networks.

Conclusions:

The motor cortex employs a dynamic coding strategy, shifting from multiplicative to additive representations for sequential movements.
Multiplicative joint coding enriches neural representations for sequential actions.
This coding strategy may explain the linear readout of elemental movements in sequential tasks.