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Updated: May 9, 2025

WheelCon: A Wheel Control-Based Gaming Platform for Studying Human Sensorimotor Control

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Neural geometry from mixed sensorimotor selectivity for predictive sensorimotor control.

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

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

|May 1, 2025

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Motor cortex neurons adjust movement commands based on sensory input, revealing how target motion influences neural activity during predictive control tasks. This study elucidates sensorimotor dynamics in motor cortex function.

Keywords:

manual interception monkey multi-channel recording neural coding neural dynamics neuroscience reach rhesus macaque

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Area of Science:

Neuroscience
Motor Control
Computational Neuroscience

Background:

The motor cortex generates motor outputs and processes sensory information.
Understanding how sensory context influences motor commands is crucial but remains unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate how sensory context, specifically target motion, modulates neural activity in the motor cortex during predictive sensorimotor control.
To elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying flexible motor command adjustment.

Main Methods:

Recorded population neural activity in the motor cortex using microelectrode arrays in monkeys.
Monkeys performed flexible manual interceptions of moving targets.
Analyzed neural activity using representational models and recurrent neural networks (RNNs).

Main Results:

Most motor cortex neurons encoding movements were influenced by ongoing target motion.
Single-trial neural states exhibited staggered orbital geometries at movement onset.
Target motion was found to modulate peri-movement activity orthogonally.

Conclusions:

Sensory context, like target motion, significantly impacts motor cortex activity during predictive tasks.
Neuronal mixed sensorimotor selectivity and dynamic interactions explain sensorimotor dynamics.
The findings offer insights into the neural basis of adaptive motor control.