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Primary motor cortex is involved in bimanual coordination

Nature volume 395, pages 274–278 (1998)Cite this article

Abstract

Many voluntary movements involve coordination between the limbs1,2. However, there have been very few attempts to study the neuronal mechanisms that mediate this coordination. Here we have studied the activity of cortical neurons while monkeys performed tasks that required coordination between the two arms. We found that most neurons in the primary motor cortex (MI) show activity specific to bimanual movements (bimanual-related activity), which is strikingly different from the activity of the same neurons during unimanual movements. Moreover, units in the supplementary motor area (SMA; the area of cortex most often associated with bimanual coordination3) showed no more bimanual-related activity than units in MI. Our results challenge the classic view that MI controls the contralateral (opposite) side of the body and that SMA is responsible for the coordination of the arms. Rather, our data suggest that both cortical areas share the control of bilateral coordination.

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Figure 1: Behavioural paradigm and task.
Figure 2: SMA cell with bimanual-related activity.
Figure 3: Two MI cells with bimanual-related activity.
Figure 4: Effect of kinematics on cell response.

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Acknowledgements

We thank S. P. Wise and J. Kalaska for their comments on earlier versions of the manuscript; A. P. Mitz for contributions to the style and content of the work; Y. Donchin for help during the surgical procedures; and the Clore Foundation for the fellowship that supported O.D. throughout this project. This research is supported in part by a grant from the US-Israel Binational Foundation and by a grant from the Israel Science Foundation.

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  1. Department of Physiology and the Center for Neural Computation, The Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, 91120, Jerusalem, Israel

    O. Donchin, A. Gribova, O. Steinberg, H. Bergman & E. Vaadia

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  1. O. Donchin
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Correspondence to E. Vaadia.

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Donchin, O., Gribova, A., Steinberg, O. et al. Primary motor cortex is involved in bimanual coordination. Nature 395, 274–278 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/26220

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