Motor control articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    ALS is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by loss of motor neurons. Here, the authors showed that reduced levels of the VSP35 subunit in the retromer complex is a conserved ALS feature and identified a new lead compound increasing retromer stability ameliorating the disease phenotype.

    • Luca Muzio
    • , Riccardo Sirtori
    •  & Gianvito Martino

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How does the brain control the complex movements of hands? Here, by tracking human hand kinematics and applying multidimensional reduction techniques, the authors provide evidence that grasping involves a complex control system that regulates even the most subtle aspects of hand movement.

    • Yuke Yan
    • , James M. Goodman
    •  & Sliman J. Bensmaia

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Speech production is thought to rely on speech motor programs in the left cerebral hemisphere and on auditory feedback control by the right halve of the human brain. Here, the authors reveal that the left hemisphere preferentially controls temporal speech features while the right hemisphere controls speech by analyzing spectral features of the auditory feedback.

    • Mareike Floegel
    • , Susanne Fuchs
    •  & Christian A. Kell

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a symptomatic treatment of Parkinson’s disease (PD) that benefits only a minority of patients. Here, the authors show that activation of cortical somatostatin interneurons alleviates motor symptoms in a mouse model of PD and may constitute a less invasive alternative than DBS.

    • Sébastien Valverde
    • , Marie Vandecasteele
    •  & Laurent Venance

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Exercise promotes motor skill learning via unclear mechanisms. Here, the authors show that running wheel training results in neurotransmitter switching in caudal pedunculopontine nucleus neurons of mice. These neurons project to several brain regions, regulating the acquisition of motor skills.

    • Hui-quan Li
    •  & Nicholas C. Spitzer

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Male fruitflies sing a patterned wing song during courtship. Here, the authors show that females sing a distinct song during copulation, which is controlled by sex-specific neurons, depends on seminal fluid from the male accessory gland and modulates latency of female remating with subsequent males.

    • Peter Kerwin
    • , Jiasheng Yuan
    •  & Anne C. von Philipsborn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The regulation of cellular neuronal properties distinct from synaptic plasticity has been proposed as a mechanism of functional network organization. Here, the authors show that the magnitude of five ion currents in basal ganglia projection song system forebrain neurons covary across life, rapidly and dynamically relating to learned features of individual zebra finches’ songs.

    • Arij Daou
    •  & Daniel Margoliash

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The cerebellum is critical in sensory-motor control and is structurally diverse across vertebrates. Here, the authors investigate the evolutionary relationship between locomotory mode and cerebellum architecture across squamates by integrating study of gene expression, cell distribution, and 3D morphology.

    • Simone Macrì
    • , Yoland Savriama
    •  & Nicolas Di-Poï

  • Perspective
    | Open Access

    Recent research in motor neuroscience has focused on optimal feedback control of single, simple tasks while robotics and AI are making progress towards flexible movement control in complex environments employing hierarchical control strategies. Here, the authors argue for a return to hierarchical models of motor control in neuroscience.

    • Josh Merel
    • , Matthew Botvinick
    •  & Greg Wayne

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Network activity in primary motor cortex (M1) controls dexterous limb movements. Here, the authors show that the M1 population code varies according to contextual motor demands that are conveyed via the secondary motor cortex (M2).

    • Wolfgang Omlor
    • , Anna-Sophia Wahl
    •  & Fritjof Helmchen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Whether marmosets can exhibit complex motor tasks in controlled experimental designs has not yet been demonstrated. Here, the authors show that marmoset monkeys can be trained to call on command in controlled operant conditioning tasks.

    • Thomas Pomberger
    • , Cristina Risueno-Segovia
    •  & Steffen R. Hage

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Model-based centralization schemes, though able to quantify locomotion control in animals and bio-inspired robots, are limited to specific systems. Here, the authors report a generalized information-based centralization scheme that unifies existing models and can be applied to different systems.

    • Izaak D. Neveln
    • , Amoolya Tirumalai
    •  & Simon Sponberg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    There are few studies of structural changes in ascending and descending sensorimotor pathways after stroke, beyond the corticospinal tract, in the brain. Here the authors identify changes in white matter structure in brainstem and spinal cord following stroke, and show its relationship to motor impairment.

    • Haleh Karbasforoushan
    • , Julien Cohen-Adad
    •  & Julius P. A. Dewald

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Spinal CPGs transmit movement commands through rhythmic synaptic drive onto the spinal premotor network. Here, the authors use paired recordings to demonstrate that spinal neurons have decorrelated synaptic activity suggesting a CPG network with sparse convergent connectivity.

    • Marija Radosevic
    • , Alex Willumsen
    •  & Rune W. Berg

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Motor preparation processes guide movement. Here, by recording neural activity in monkeys reaching toward targets that can change location, the authors provide evidence that changing a prepared movement midway through completion reengages motor preparation.

    • K. Cora Ames
    • , Stephen I. Ryu
    •  & Krishna V. Shenoy

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Many natural behaviours involve tracking of a target in space. Here, the authors describe a task to assess this behaviour in mice and use in vivo electrophysiology, calcium imaging, optogenetics, and chemogenetics to investigate the role of the striatum in target pursuit.

    • Namsoo Kim
    • , Haofang E. Li
    •  & Henry H. Yin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Despite the known role of midbrain dopaminergic (mDA) signaling in the homeostatic control of mood and motor functions, little is known about how gene expression in these neurons is regulated. Here, authors develop an in vivo nuclear tagging and capture technique for low-input chromatin accessibility and transcriptome profiling of genetically-defined neuron populations to identify Gmeb1 as a novel transcriptional regulator of mDA neurons, whose loss of function impairs motor control in mice.

    • Luis M. Tuesta
    • , Mohamed N. Djekidel
    •  & Yi Zhang

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Can the human brain successfully control additional body parts beyond the ones we normally possess? Here, the authors study two polydactyly individuals (with an additional finger on each hand) and show that they can carry out more complex movements, performing with only one hand tasks normally requiring two.

    • C. Mehring
    • , M. Akselrod
    •  & E. Burdet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    During evoked swims, zebrafish larvae transition from fast to slow speeds. Here, the authors elucidate the circuit mechanisms in the central pattern generators in the spinal cord and show that genetically labeled V1 spinal interneurons provide in phase inhibition onto fast and slow motor neurons that are involved in the switching behaviour.

    • Yukiko Kimura
    •  & Shin-ichi Higashijima

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is known that Purkinje cell PKC-dependent depression is involved in the stabilization of self-motion based hippocampal representation. Here the authors describe decreased stability of hippocampal place cells based on allocentric cues in mice lacking Purkinje cell PP2B-dependent potentiation.

    • Julie Marie Lefort
    • , Jean Vincent
    •  & Christelle Rochefort

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The red nucleus (RN) is a midbrain nucleus known to be involved in the fine control of limb movements, but its role in motor learning is unclear. Here, the authors identified a neuronal population within the red nucleus, co-expressing Vglut2, PV and C1Ql2, which undergoes training-dependent plasticity.

    • Giorgio Rizzi
    • , Mustafa Coban
    •  & Kelly R. Tan

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The wiring of peripheral neural circuits that regulate heart rate is poorly understood. In this study, authors used tissue clearing for high-resolution characterization of nerves in the heart in 3D and transgenic and novel viral vector approaches to identify peripheral parasympathetic and sympathetic neuronal populations involved in heart rate control in mice.

    • Pradeep S. Rajendran
    • , Rosemary C. Challis
    •  & Kalyanam Shivkumar

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is not clear to what degree activity in dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) reflects perceptual-deliberation versus action-selection aspects of decision-making. Here, the authors report that monkey PMd neurons do not express correlates of the perceptual decision independently of the action choices.

    • Megan Wang
    • , Christéva Montanède
    •  & John F. Kalaska

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Some cortical neurons fire together like a synchronized chorus, while others fire independently like soloists. Here, the authors show that soloist neurons in motor cortex tend to control body movements, while the choristers do not, and that soloists can become choristers by increasing inhibition.

    • Patrick A. Kells
    • , Shree Hari Gautam
    •  & Woodrow L. Shew

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Transcranial alternating current stimulation (tACS) uses weak electrical currents, applied to the head, to modulate brain activity. Here, the authors show that contrary to previous assumptions, the effects of tACS on the brain may be mediated by its effect on peripheral nerves in the skin, not direct.

    • Boateng Asamoah
    • , Ahmad Khatoun
    •  & Myles Mc Laughlin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    To explain the neural correlates of behavior and its variability, one must analyze single-trial population dynamics. Here, the authors develop a statistical method that extracts low-dimensional dynamics that explain behavior better than high-dimensional neural activity revealing unexpected structure.

    • Ziqiang Wei
    • , Hidehiko Inagaki
    •  & Shaul Druckmann

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Motor learning is thought to be mostly procedural, but recent work has suggested that there is a strong cognitive component to it. Here, the authors show that humans use dissociable cognitive strategies, either caching successful responses or using a rule-based strategy, to solve a visuomotor learning task.

    • Samuel D. McDougle
    •  & Jordan A. Taylor

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Respiratory failure is one of the leading causes of death following spinal cord injury and it is unclear if normal respiratory motor activity can be recovered after chronic injury-induced paralysis. Here, authors show that treatment with chondroitinase ABC induces robust rescue of breathing up to 1.5 years following complete hemidiaphragm paralysis.

    • Philippa M. Warren
    • , Stephanie C. Steiger
    •  & Jerry Silver

  • Article
    | Open Access

    How corticostriatal connections of different pyramidal cell types are organized, particularly in convergent circuits, has not been evaluated in detail. Here, cell type-specific Cre-driver mice reveal that pyramidal tract-type corticostriatal projections, though broadly similar to intratelencephalic-type projections from the same cortical region, are generally more restricted and variable in their topographic termination patterns.

    • Bryan M. Hooks
    • , Andrew E. Papale
    •  & Charles R. Gerfen

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Recording the activity of neurons over large brain regions requires expanding the field of view of the optics without losing on spatial and temporal resolution. Here, the authors report a micro-opto-mechanical device that enables two-photon imaging across distant motor areas around 6 mm apart in the mouse.

    • Shin-Ichiro Terada
    • , Kenta Kobayashi
    •  & Masanori Matsuzaki

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It is debated whether motor cortical activity reflects plans for multiple potential actions. Here, the authors report that in a delayed response task with two potential reach targets, population activity in the dorsal premotor cortex at any moment in time represents only one of the targets.

    • Brian M. Dekleva
    • , Konrad P. Kording
    •  & Lee E. Miller

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Dendritic integration is important for information processing in the brain. Here, in awake mice, authors combine simultaneous dendritic recording of voltage and calcium signals, with somatic recording from Purkinje neurons, enabling characterization of dendritic spiking, action potential backpropagation, and ‘hotspots’ in spiny dendrites.

    • Christopher J. Roome
    •  & Bernd Kuhn

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Locomotor circuits in the spinal cord produce precise movements with variations in timing and vigor. Here, the authors report that such motor flexibility is generated through the specificity of connections between subtypes of V2a interneurons and motoneuron populations and their distinct plasticity mechanisms.

    • Jianren Song
    • , Elin Dahlberg
    •  & Abdeljabbar El Manira

  • Article
    | Open Access

    When tracking a moving object, our eyes make smooth pursuit movements; however, tracking an imaginary object produces jerky saccadic eye movements. Here, the authors show that during lucid dreams, the eyes smoothly follow dreamed objects. In this respect, dream imagery is more similar to perception than imagination.

    • Stephen LaBerge
    • , Benjamin Baird
    •  & Philip G. Zimbardo

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Premature infants are vulnerable to hypoxia and thus white matter injury, especially in the cerebellum, which develops during late gestation. Here, the authors test the effects of perinatal hypoxia on motor performance and rescue behavioral deficits using the GABA reuptake inhibitor Tiagabine.

    • Aaron Sathyanesan
    • , Srikanya Kundu
    •  & Vittorio Gallo

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