Sensorimotor processing articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The neural basis of spatial localization is poorly understood. Here the authors showed that when planning a reach towards an object, neural coding in the frontoparietal network dynamically changes between allocentric and egocentric spatial reference frames where the transition is controlled by task demands.

    • Bahareh Taghizadeh
    • , Ole Fortmann
    •  & Alexander Gail

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The neural processes underlying vocal self-monitoring are unclear. Here, the authors show that vocal suppression of auditory cortex operates on two time-scales with different temporal and acoustic precision, suggesting distinct predictive modulations.

    • Joji Tsunada
    • , Xiaoqin Wang
    •  & Steven J. Eliades

  • Article
    | Open Access

    “Visual performance might vary during natural behaviour such as walking. Here, the authors use wireless virtual reality to show that oscillations in performance on a visual detection task were systematically linked to the phase of the stride cycle.”

    • Matthew J. Davidson
    • , Frans A. J. Verstraten
    •  & David Alais

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How neural responses to boundaries develop in the subiculum remains unknown. Here authors show that the receptive fields of Boundary Vector Cells (neurons signalling vector displacement to boundaries) are altered by environment geometry, with directional tunings aligning with square arena walls, including during development.

    • Laurenz Muessig
    • , Fabio Ribeiro Rodrigues
    •  & Thomas J. Wills

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Inspired by insects in nature, the authors develop a neuromorphic robotic system with obstacle avoidance, tunnel centering and gap crossing capabilities. Their robotic system accomplishes these multiple capabilities by steering towards regions of low apparent motion.

    • Thorben Schoepe
    • , Ella Janotte
    •  & Elisabetta Chicca

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How functional neuronal circuits are established during development is not fully understood. Here the authors show, by raising fish in the dark and under anesthesia, that brain activity is not needed for the development of complex, decision-making circuits.

    • Dániel L. Barabási
    • , Gregor F. P. Schuhknecht
    •  & Florian Engert

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The visual cortex adapts innate behaviors through its corticofugal projections to the brainstem. Here, authors show that this pathway sends unique brainstem neurons distinct behaviorally relevant signals, whose strength can plastically change to promote behavioral adaptation.

    • Jiashu Liu
    • , Yingtian He
    •  & Bao-hua Liu

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of the cerebellar nuclei (CN) during associative learning remains debated. Here, the authors show that well-timed conditioned responses can result from stimulating CN inputs, and that learning coincides with structural and synaptic activity changes in vivo.

    • Robin Broersen
    • , Catarina Albergaria
    •  & Chris I. De Zeeuw

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Multiple cortical and subcortical brain regions are implicated in decision-making, yet their causal interactions remain unclear. Here, the authors identified cellular and circuit interactions that bias cortical decision-making dynamics and behavior.

    • Alyse Thomas
    • , Weiguo Yang
    •  & Nuo Li

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In tonal languages, modulation of pitch distinguishes words with different meaning. Here the authors investigate neural mechanisms of pitch control during lexical tone production in Mandarin-speaking participants.

    • Junfeng Lu
    • , Yuanning Li
    •  & Edward F. Chang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How learning refines the coordinated activitity of neurons across multiple regions of the mouse cortex remains unclear. Here, the authors identified the emergence of cortical subnetworks during learning of a sensorimotor task.

    • Xin Wei Chia
    • , Jian Kwang Tan
    •  & Hiroshi Makino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Animals find and stay close to resources by altering their locomotion in response to odors that signal resources. Here the authors identify, using Drosophila locomotion in response to odor, a simple strategy that adapts its motor program to sensory context automatically.

    • Liangyu Tao
    • , Samuel P. Wechsler
    •  & Vikas Bhandawat

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The role of presynaptic modulation on peripheral sensory input during voluntary movement is unclear. Here, the authors found it flexibly facilitates and suppresses proprioceptive input to the monkey’s spinal cord, relevant to motor behavior.

    • Saeka Tomatsu
    • , GeeHee Kim
    •  & Kazuhiko Seki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Neural coding of goal direction remains unclear in insects. Here, the authors describe goal-direction neurons in the monarch butterfly brain that specifically encode the insect’s desired flight direction during spatial orientation.

    • M. Jerome Beetz
    • , Christian Kraus
    •  & Basil el Jundi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Impaired transcallosal inhibition is believed to underlie visuospatial bias after frontoparietal damage, but the synaptic circuits involved remain largely unknown. Here, authors show a transcallosal inhibition loop in the anterior cingulate area that functions in visuospatial processing by maintaining balanced interhemispheric interactions.

    • Yanjie Wang
    • , Zhaonan Chen
    •  & Siyu Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The neural coding of tactile processing and movement planning in the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) is not well understood. Here, the authors show a distinction between anatomical and spatial location coding in the anterior and posterior PPC respectively during sensory processing, and that the PPC dynamically integrates this information with task requirements to derive a movement goal in space during motor planning.

    • Janina Klautke
    • , Celia Foster
    •  & Tobias Heed

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Purkinje cells form a diverse population, but how diversity contributes to cerebellar behavior is not fully understood. Here, the authors reveal how nuances in molecular signatures correlate with electrophysiological, anatomical, and ultimately functional differences among Purkinje cell subpopulations.

    • François G. C. Blot
    • , Joshua J. White
    •  & Martijn Schonewille

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Studying visual processing during natural eye movements in untrained animals is challenging. Here, the authors provide a method for accurately measuring the retinal input to study visual processing and neural selectivity during natural oculomotor behavior in non-human primates.

    • Jacob L. Yates
    • , Shanna H. Coop
    •  & Jude F. Mitchell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Natural behaviors induce changes to hidden states of the world that may be vital to track. Here, in monkeys navigating virtually to hidden goals, the authors show that neural interactions in the posterior parietal cortex play a role in tracking displacement from an unobservable goal.

    • Kaushik J. Lakshminarasimhan
    • , Eric Avila
    •  & Dora E. Angelaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The basal ganglia process sensory and motor related information, but it is not known how movement affects sensory integration. Here, the authors show using in vivo whole-cell recordings that striatal neurons respond to both sensory stimuli and spontaneous whisking and that sensory responses are attenuated by whisking.

    • Roberto de la Torre-Martinez
    • , Maya Ketzef
    •  & Gilad Silberberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The authors examine the cortical microcircuitry relating to executive control in macaques. They describe three classes of neurons that signal response conflict, event timing, and maintenance of task goals, as well as their relations with event-related potentials that are associated with response inhibition.

    • Amirsaman Sajad
    • , Steven P. Errington
    •  & Jeffrey D. Schall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Visual crowding is a phenomenon where objects presented in the visual periphery are not resolved efficiently. Here the authors show that crowding may derive from an optimizing strategy that blends information when it is similar and preserves it when it is dissimilar.

    • Guido Marco Cicchini
    • , Giovanni D’Errico
    •  & David Charles Burr

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How animals make multiple-choice decisions over three or more alternatives is not well understood. Here the authors use simulations to uncover that there is not one but many optimal parameter value configurations on the reward landscape of the multiple-choice threshold boundaries.

    • Sophie-Anne Baker
    • , Thom Griffith
    •  & Nathan F. Lepora

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How sensory systems are organized during development remains unclear. Here, the authors used electron microscopy to examine the gravity-sensing system in zebrafish, finding that directional tuning and developmental age are organizing principles of the transformation from vestibular sensation to motor control.

    • Zhikai Liu
    • , David G. C. Hildebrand
    •  & Martha W. Bagnall

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors show that gaze stabilization relies on a visuo-vestibular network conserved from lamprey to primates. This primordial blueprint highlights how visual and vestibular streams are organized to control fundamental aspects of eye movements.

    • Tobias Wibble
    • , Tony Pansell
    •  & Juan Pérez-Fernández

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Flies navigate to food sources by combining odour and wind-direction cues. This study identifies pathways to the fan-shaped body that encode these signals, and demonstrates how local neurons integrate odour- and wind information to guide navigation.

    • Andrew M. M. Matheson
    • , Aaron J. Lanz
    •  & Katherine I. Nagel

  • Article
    | Open Access

    In primate area LIP, target selection and the accumulation of sensory evidence are considered a single process. Here, the authors use urgent choice tasks to show that spatial selection in LIP is distinct from, and may even conflict with, evidence accumulation.

    • Joshua A. Seideman
    • , Terrence R. Stanford
    •  & Emilio Salinas

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The source of the evidence accumulation signal widely observed in the brain during decision making is unknown. Here, the authors used a two-stage decision task to show that the accumulation signal in the posterior parietal cortex arises locally.

    • Zhewei Zhang
    • , Chaoqun Yin
    •  & Tianming Yang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How cortical areas interact during vocalization is not fully understood. Here the authors show that when bats vocalize, the behavioral function of emitted sounds determines the direction of information flow between frontal and auditory cortices.

    • Francisco García-Rosales
    • , Luciana López-Jury
    •  & Julio C. Hechavarría

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It remains unclear how the brain represents information regarding synchronized movements. Here, the authors investigated the response properties of cerebellar cells in macaques performing a synchronized saccade task and found three groups of cerebellar neurons with distinct peri-saccade response profiles.

    • Ken-ichi Okada
    • , Ryuji Takeya
    •  & Masaki Tanaka

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is not fully understood how behavioral flexibility is established in the context of automatic performance of a complex motor skill. Here the authors show that corticostriatal activity can flexibly transition between two modes during a reach to-grasp task in rats: reliable neural pattern generation for precise, automatic movements versus variable neural patterning for behavioral exploration.

    • Sravani Kondapavulur
    • , Stefan M. Lemke
    •  & Karunesh Ganguly

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