title: Pontine reference frames for the sensory guidance of movement.
abstract: The pontine nuclei (PN) are the major intermediary elements in the corticopontocerebellar pathway. Here we asked if the PN may help to adapt the spatial reference frames used by cerebrocortical neurons involved in the sensory guidance of movement to a format potentially more appropriate for the cerebellum. To this end, we studied movement-related neurons in the dorsal PN (DPN) of monkeys, most probably projecting to the cerebellum, executing fixed vector saccades or, alternatively, fixed vector hand reaches from different starting positions. The 83 task-related neurons considered fired movement-related bursts before saccades (saccade-related) or before hand movements (hand movement-related). About 40% of the SR neurons were "oculocentric," whereas the others were modulated by eye starting position. A third of the HMR neurons encoded hand reaches in hand-centered coordinates, whereas the remainder exhibited different types of dependencies on starting positions, reminiscent in general of cortical responses. All in all, pontine reference frames for the sensory guidance of movement seem to be very similar to those in cortex. Specifically, the frequency of orbital position gain fields of SR neurons is identical in the DPN and in one of their major cortical inputs, lateral intraparietal area (LIP).
authors.affiliation: Department for Cognitive Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller-Strasse 27, Tübingen 72076, Germany.
authors.forename: Konstantin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tziridis
authors.forename: Peter W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Dicke
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Thier
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials / Q000502:physiology; D000818:Animals; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006225:Hand; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D009949:Orientation / Q000502:physiology; D010775:Photic Stimulation; D011149:Pons / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D012438:Saccades / Q000502:physiology; D013998:Time Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*