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Science 22 July 1994:
Vol. 265. no. 5171, pp. 540 - 542
DOI: 10.1126/science.8036499
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Articles

Science, Vol 265, Issue 5171, 540-542
Copyright © 1994 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Direct cortical representation of drawing

AB Schwartz

Division of Neurobiology, Barrow Neurological Institute, Phoenix, AZ 85013.

How the intention to act results in movement is a fundamental question of brain organization. Recent work has shown that this operation involves the cooperative interaction of large neuronal populations. A population vector method, by transforming neuronal activity to the spatial domain, was used to visualize the motor cortical representation of the hand's trajectory made by rhesus monkeys as they drew spirals. Hand path was accurately reflected by a series of population vectors calculated throughout the task. A psychophysical rule relating speed to curvature, the "power law," was found in this cortical representation. The relative timing between each population vector and the corresponding portion of the movement was variable. The population vectors only preceded the movement in a predictive manner in portions of the spiral where the radius of curvature was greater than 6 centimeters. These results show that the movement trajectory is an important determinant of motor cortical activity and that this aspect of motor cortical activity may contribute only to discrete portions of the drawing movement.


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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Useful signals from motor cortex.
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Parietal Representation of Hand Velocity in a Copy Task.
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Coding of position by simultaneously recorded sensory neurones in the cat dorsal root ganglion.
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J. Physiol. 560, 883-896
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Differential Representation of Perception and Action in the Frontal Cortex.
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W. Kruse, S. Dannenberg, R. Kleiser, and K.-P. Hoffmann (2002)
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Kinematic Coordinates In Which Motor Cortical Cells Encode Movement Direction.
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Reference Frames for Spinal Proprioception: Limb Endpoint Based or Joint-Level Based?.
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Motor Cortical Representation of Speed and Direction During Reaching.
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Motor Cortical Activity During Drawing Movements: Population Representation During Spiral Tracing.
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J Neurophysiol 82, 2693-2704
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Motor Cortical Activity During Drawing Movements: Population Representation During Lemniscate Tracing.
A. B. Schwartz and D. W. Moran (1999)
J Neurophysiol 82, 2705-2718
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A Theory of Geometric Constraints on Neural Activity for Natural Three-Dimensional Movement.
K. Zhang and T. J. Sejnowski (1999)
J. Neurosci. 19, 3122-3145
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Short-Term Memory for Reaching to Visual Targets: Psychophysical Evidence for Body-Centered Reference Frames.
J. McIntyre, F. Stratta, and F. Lacquaniti (1998)
J. Neurosci. 18, 8423-8435
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Spatiotemporal Structure of Cortical Activity: Properties and Behavioral Relevance.
Y. Prut, E. Vaadia, H. Bergman, I. Haalman, H. Slovin, and M. Abeles (1998)
J Neurophysiol 79, 2857-2874
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Temporal and Amplitude Generalization in Motor Learning.
S. J. Goodbody and D. M. Wolpert (1998)
J Neurophysiol 79, 1825-1838
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J. Neurosci. 17, 3932-3945
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