title: Extending the Cortical Grasping Network: Pre-supplementary Motor Neuron Activity During Vision and Grasping of Objects.
abstract: Grasping relies on a network of parieto-frontal areas lying on the dorsolateral and dorsomedial parts of the hemispheres. However, the initiation and sequencing of voluntary actions also requires the contribution of mesial premotor regions, particularly the pre-supplementary motor area F6. We recorded 233 F6 neurons from 2 monkeys with chronic linear multishank neural probes during reaching-grasping visuomotor tasks. We showed that F6 neurons play a role in the control of forelimb movements and some of them (26%) exhibit visual and/or motor specificity for the target object. Interestingly, area F6 neurons form 2 functionally distinct populations, showing either visually-triggered or movement-related bursts of activity, in contrast to the sustained visual-to-motor activity displayed by ventral premotor area F5 neurons recorded in the same animals and with the same task during previous studies. These findings suggest that F6 plays a role in object grasping and extend existing models of the cortical grasping network.
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, 43125 Parma, Italy marco.lanzilotto@unipr.it luca.bonini@unipr.it.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lanzilotto
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, 43125 Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Livi
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Brain Center for Social and Motor Cognition (BCSMC), 43125 Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Maranesi
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, 43125 Parma, Italy.|Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Brain Center for Social and Motor Cognition (BCSMC), 43125 Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Marzio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gerbella
authors.affiliation: Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany.|BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Falk
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barz
authors.affiliation: Department of Microsystems Engineering (IMTEK), University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany.|BrainLinks-BrainTools Cluster of Excellence, University of Freiburg, 79110 Freiburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ruther
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, 43125 Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Leonardo
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Fogassi
authors.affiliation: Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Brain Center for Social and Motor Cognition (BCSMC), 43125 Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Giacomo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rizzolatti
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma, 43125 Parma, Italy.|Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (IIT), Brain Center for Social and Motor Cognition (BCSMC), 43125 Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Luca
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bonini
mesh_terms: D000200:Action Potentials; D000818:Animals; D004558:Electric Stimulation; D004567:Electrodes, Implanted; D005542:Forearm / Q000502:physiology; D006225:Hand / Q000502:physiology*; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008254:Macaca nemestrina; D008297:Male; D009043:Motor Activity / Q000502:physiology*; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology*; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology*; D014796:Visual Perception / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: macaque; multielectrode probes; reaching–grasping; visuomotor neurons