Tutorial � Iles, reaching

Greg Detre

22/10/01

Dr Iles, week II

 

 

reaching � in order to lift up, e.g. primates

movement made under visual control

learned to some extent, probably takes a few months to co-ordinate, partly trial + error

open loop or pre-programmed � visual input is used to specify the motor programme, but corrections are being continually made if the objects move

almost irrepressible corrections (see reading list Pisella, Grea et al 2000, Nature neurosci)

direction of object � needs to be body-centred

good evidence for those kind of coordinate transformations in the PPC

object distance � stereopsis (best at 1m), needs independent information about where your eyes converge � cells in the parietal cortex (???)

starting position of limb provided by kineshetic � muscle spindle, cutaneous, joints etc. � all project to the PC

start and end position defines a trajectory � close to straight line trajectories , bell-shaped velocities

also: grip force, hand shape, finger aperture, posture, lift force etc.

some evidence tha they might be organised in the PC

Goodale: shown that lesions in the PC affect these, whereas lesions in the ventral stream do not affect them

effects of illusions, e.g. size illusions fool perceptual but not reaching system

some that effect estimates of weight (which is probably ventral anyway)

most of the necessary components/information fits/feeds into the dorsal system

where else is involved in reaching?

motor + pre-motor

lesion evidence, functional imaging, PET (premotor related to self-paced movements)

 

main approach = chronic recording in conscious monkeys

(first done by Evarts)

Georgeopolous � studied reaching on conscious operant trained monkeys � suggested that the firing varied according to direction of movement � overall movement out of the vector sum of individually-tuned populations of neurons

Kadaska and Crammond tried movement from A-B with different patterns/postures � argued that he from iring of some of the neurons changed, so they weren�t coding just for directions � indeed, some were affected by load-bearing

Kakei (recent) monkey different grips different muscles to more up-/down � in the premotor, mainly specifies overall direction of movement oblivions of which muscles do what int eh motor, a significant number were related to muscle activation (2001, Nature Neurosci, vol 4, pg 1020) (1999, Sci, vol 285, pg 3136), though there were a small number coding for direction in space

so where are the details of the motor output mainly specified?

possibly sub-cortical, but because they�re highly-learned, could go on with the cerebellum

massive projections from PPC pons cerebellum, and back to motor cortex via thalamus + caudate, or even the basal ganglia (there are projections from PPC BG premotor (e.g. bradykinesia akinesia in Parkinson�s))

or even in the spinal cord? Lundberg et al � hindlimb of the cat, but some on the forelimb of the cat, even though we don�t normally think of cats reaching out

transparent tube with food at the end, and cats had to put their paw through tube + manipulate � showed that there is manipulation masked by the fur

looked to se how primary motor is wired to spinal � no direct connecitons, though there are via 1 or 2 inter-neurons, plus an indirect paht that has a different function

CST travels down different part of spinal cord so could lesion

propriospinal lesion affected reaching, direct affected manipulation

giant fibres in lobster almost complete tail-flip escape respnose from command neurons in spine

cats are carnivores + we�re primates � very distant common ancestor with limited vision + reaching

opposite argument in �On the origin of skilled forelimb movements�

says that reaching + manipulation movements are actually quite widespread, so the machinery underlyingn might be distributed + conserved in the spinal cord (???)

Dessolini � human neurophsyiology experiments � many phenomena attributed to propriospinal in cat, so �/span> hope for some simple reaching located in the spinal cord

Lemon worked on monkeys � should be easy enough to reveal propriospinal tract

found no evidence for it in rhesus anaesthetised monkeys

Lemon on conscious monkeys, found no evidence for propriospinal mediated actions

some responses though in squirrel monkesy, so Whisaw + Iwaniak might be right in attributing same movements further back � but, squirrel monkeys have poor control of movement

rubrospinal (from the mid-brain red nucleus)

rubrospinal said to be absent, so might be a need for propriospinal in man

frogs � highly specialised amphibia

frogs are adept at reoving things from body surface, even spinal frogs

stimulating part of spinal cord �/span> hindleg movement to a particular position (Bitzy)

but can't be confident that this is activating an unnatural part of the spinal cord

rats flexor reflex � similar to frogs� reflex

might be stimluating cutaneous afferents by accident

Anderson � intention in the PC?

intention seems less related to irrepressible corrections

self-paced � more medial premotor areas, like supplementary areas � probably responsible for readiness potentials

BG may also be implicated

intention probably comes in many different guises, including perhaps PC

parahippocampal gyrus � involved in memory

cingulate � memory + intention (just underneath supplementary motor cortex)

place fields in the rat hippocampus � probably more for finding its way round the environment, spatial learning etc.

(Paus(???), 2001, Nature Neurosci � anterior cingulate cortex � motor + cognitive interface)

accept the 2 stream model of vision as useful simplifying model but be careful

Livingstone + Hubel � inputs are not purely p- and m- though � that�s mixedu p

how distinct are they anatomically � Young (Nature, 1992, pg 155)

 

parallel processing � look at the IT side, and face recognition

 

Questions

open loop vs pre-programmed

alien hand syndrome

PC shows that � of the visual system at least, needs embodiment

NN constraint satisfaction = good for ill-posed problems

where is premotor/somatosens???

spinal cord is conservative

readiness potentials � signal couple of seconds before execution

Sakata � important for distance of object