 |
| Research article summary (published 18 May 2009): |
Context-specific grasp movement representation in the macaque anterior intraparietal area.
Full Abstract
To perform grasping movements, the hand is shaped according to the form of the target object and the intended manipulation, which in turn depends on the context of the action. The anterior intraparietal cortex (AIP) is strongly involved in the sensorimotor transformation of grasping movements, but the extent to which it encodes context-specific information for hand grasping is unclear. To explore this issue, we recorded 571 single-units in AIP of two macaques during a delayed grasping task, in which animals were instructed by an external context cue (LED) to perform power or precision grips on a handle that was presented in various orientations. While 55% of the recorded neurons encoded the object orientation from the cue epoch on, the number of cells encoding the grip type increased from 25% during the cue epoch to 58% during movement execution. Furthermore, a classification of cells according to the time of their tuning onset revealed differences in the function and anatomical location of early- versus late-tuned cells. In a cue separation task, when the object was presented first, neurons representing power or precision grips were activated simultaneously until the actual grip type was instructed. In contrast, when the grasp type instruction was presented before the object, type information was only weakly represented in AIP, but was strongly encoded after the grasp target was revealed. We conclude that AIP encodes context specific hand grasping movements to perceived objects, but in the absence of a grasp target, the encoding of context information is weak.
Author information
Author/s: Baumann, Markus A (MA); Fluet, Marie-Christine (MC); Scherberger, Hansjörg (H);
Affiliation: Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zürich and Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich, CH-8057 Zürich, Switzerland.
Journal and publication information
Publication Type: Journal Article; Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Journal: The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience (J Neurosci), published in United States. (Language: eng)
Reference: 2009-May; vol 29 (issue 20) : pp 6436-48
Dates: Created 2009/05/21; Completed 2009/06/08; Revised 2009/10/01;
PMID: 19458215, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 10/1/2009, IMS Date: )
Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.
Comments and Corrections
CommentIn: J Neurosci. 2009 Sep 30;29(39):12031-2. (PMID: 19793960)
External Links for this article
(including full text providers, if available):
Click Electronic Full-text Provider Links to see options for finding the electronic full text links to this article. Note there may be a subscription or fee required for access to the full text. See our FAQ for information on finding FREE full text articles.
This article may also be located in paper journal collections available in many libraries. Use the Journal and Publication Information above to find the full article.
MeSH headings (categories)
This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.
Related articles
This article has not been indexed for related articles as yet, however you can still use the live related article search links below.
See a large map of 100+ related articles.