262.

Oscillatory activity in monkey dorsal premotor areas during a dissociated reaching task.
P. Sayegh , B. Neagu , K. Hoffman , X. Yan , J. D Crawford & L. E. Sergio
1 2 3 12 , 12 , 23 , 23 , 23 , 12 ,

School of Kinesiology and Health Science, Centre for Vision Research, Dept. of Psychology York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

The CIHR Group for Action and Perception

INTRODUCTION
We are interested in the contribution of different brain areas to reaching tasks having an increasing dissociation between the visual stimulus and the motor output. A visual-to-motor transformation can be considered standard when the visual stimulus guiding a movement is the target of the action itself. A transformation can be considered nonstandard when a visual stimulus provides information about the direction of a required movement but is not 1 the target of the motor output . We perform nonstandard tasks (e.g. using a computer mouse) effortlessly, yet this ability is not innate and can be compromised under 2 neuropathological conditions . Previous human imaging work has demonstrated that activity in a network of brain regions that includes premotor and superior parietal cortex can vary as a visually-guided 3 reaching task becomes progressively nonstandard . Here we examine the contribution of the rostral and caudal portions of dorsal premotor cortex (PMdr, PMdc) under these same conditions, by analysing local field potentials (LFP) recorded in awake behaving primates.

RESULTS
Sample eye movements
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Late-cue frequency changes with dissociation in Rostral Pmd

Figure 2. X & Y Eye trajectories for one trial. X is in purple, Y is in green. o Hand and eye targets were 3.6 in diameter. Shorter vertical lines represent (from left to right): 1) time of hand entry into central target, 2) peripheral target cue onset, and 3) Central target extinction (go).

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Figure 6: Mean time-frequency spectrograms of PMdr activity during late CUE and early RT: Mean spectrograms are aligned to movement onset and show an increase in power in higher frequencies (40-100 Hz) during the dissociated condition when compared to the standard condition. N=12.

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METHODS
We examined eye- and hand-movement-related LFP activity in the dorsal premotor (PMd) cortex in a standard and non-standard situation (Figure 1). Monkeys (macaca mulatta, female) were trained to displace a cursor from a central to a cued peripheral target (cue period 1500500 ms) under standard and dissociated (non-standard) visuomotor conditions. The animals were trained to fixate on the central target throughout the cue period, then move eyes and hand to the cued peripheral target and hold them there throughout the target hold period.The full trajectory of the hand and eye are recorded to ensure that the motor task is similar between conditions. In the standard condition, the animal moved its finger along a customized touch screen placed at waist height in a horizontal plane so that the cursor was under its finger. In the dissociated condition, the cursor and targets were displayed on a monitor positioned in a frontal plane 40 cm in front of the animal. The animal moved along the horizontal touch screen to displace the vertically displayed cursor.
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Figure 7: Mean time-frequency spectrograms of PMdr activity during late CUE and early RT: Mean spectrograms are aligned to movement onset and show an increase in power in the lower (0-10 Hz) and middle (20-40Hz) frequencies during the dissociated condition when compared to the standard condition N=8.

Figure 3: Mean time-frequency spectrograms of PMd activity during early CUE: Mean spectrograms are aligned to cue onset and show an increase in frequency during the dissociated condition when compared to the standard condition. (A) Spectrograms showing an increase in power in the 20-60 Hz frequency range, N=10 data sets. (B) Spectrograms showing an increase in power across all frequencies from 20-100 Hz,N=18 data sets. Vertical lines indicate cue onset, color bars denote SD from baseline.

SUMMARY OF RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

We observed changes in the power spectrum of the LFPs between task conditions during the cue (CUE) and early reaction time (RT) periods. The changes observed during late CUE and early RT show topography. These data suggest that communication between the local cell assemblies in PMdr/PMdc may comprise a necessary part of the visuomotor transformation required for non-standard reach planning. Given the anatomical connectivity between PMdr and frontal areas , the increase in middle frequency power during the non-standard task, in late cue, may represent an inhibitory signal allowing gaze and hand to decouple.
REFERENCES
1. Wise S. et al (1997) Annu. Rev. Neurosci. 20:2542. 2. Tippett et.al. (2007) Eur. Neurology. 58(1):1-11. 3. Gorbet D. et al (2004) Neuroimage 23:1100-1111. 4. Fujii N. et al (2000) J Neurophysiol. 83: 1764-1769.

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Figure 1: Experimental setup and trial timing. Eight peripheral equally spaced(45 ) visual targets are presented on either a touch-sensitive screen placed over the animal's lap or on a monitor positioned vertically 40 cm in front of the animal. Arm movements were always made over the horizontally placed touch screen.(A) Light grey circles: target locations (not illuminated before cue). Epochs - CHT: centre hold time, CUE: cue period, RT: reaction time, MT: movement time, THT: target hold. (B) Schematic of the standard and dissociated conditions. The animals head was fixed throughout the experiment.

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Figure 4: Mean time-frequency spectrograms of PMd activity during early CUE: Mean spectrograms are aligned to cue onset and show a decrease in power across frequencies from 0-100 Hz during the dissociated condition when compared to the standard condition. N=10 data sets.

Eye movements were monitored using the ISCAN-ETL 200 Eye Tracking System (ISCAN Inc, Burlington MA) at a sampling rate of 1.6 Khz. Hand paths were monitored using a touch sensitive screen (Touch Controls Inc, San Diego CA; sampling rate 1.25 Khz). The target display presentation, behavioural timing, and hand path recordings were controlled using custom-written software (Matlab, Mathworks, USA). The cylinder was implanted just anterior to the central sulcus in the hemisphere opposite to the trained arm in order to record from PMd (both rostral and caudal subdivisions). A four electrode microdrive (FHC Inc., USA) was used in conjunction with a multi-unit recording system (Alpha-Omega Engineering, Israel) to collect single unit (12.5 kHz) and waveform (390.6 Hz) activity. Data were analysed in Matlab using both custom written and open source (Chronux.org) programmes.

Frequency changes between condition in late CUE and early RT show topography
Relative decrease across frequencies with dissociation in Caudal Pmd
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Figure 5: Mean time-frequency spectrograms of PMdc activity during late CUE and early RT: Mean spectrograms are aligned to movement onset and show a decrease in power activity in all frequencies from 0-100 Hz during the dissociated condition when compared to the standard condition. N=14 data sets.

This work was supported by an operating grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (LS).