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Skill-specific changes in cortical preparatory activity during motor learning

View ORCID ProfileXulu Sun, Daniel J. O’Shea, Matthew D. Golub, Eric M. Trautmann, Saurabh Vyas, Stephen I. Ryu, Krishna V. Shenoy
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.30.919894
Xulu Sun
1Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
6Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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  • ORCID record for Xulu Sun
  • For correspondence: xulu2@stanford.edu shenoy@stanford.edu
Daniel J. O’Shea
2Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
6Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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Matthew D. Golub
2Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
6Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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Eric M. Trautmann
2Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
6Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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Saurabh Vyas
3Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
6Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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Stephen I. Ryu
2Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
4Department of Neurosurgery, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA
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Krishna V. Shenoy
2Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
3Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
5Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
6Wu Tsai Neuroscience Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
7Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
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  • For correspondence: xulu2@stanford.edu shenoy@stanford.edu
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Abstract

Animals have a remarkable capacity to learn new motor skills, but it remains an open question as to how learning changes neural population dynamics underlying movement1. Specifically, we asked whether changes in neural population dynamics relate purely to newly learned movements or if additional patterns are generated that facilitate learning without matching motor output. We trained rhesus monkeys to learn a curl force field2 task that elicited new arm-movement kinetics for some but not all reach directions3,4. We found that along certain neural dimensions, preparatory activity in motor cortex reassociated existing activity patterns with new movements. These systematic changes were observed only for learning-altered reaches. Surprisingly, we also found prominent shifts of preparatory activity along a nearly orthogonal neural dimension. These changes in preparatory activity were observed uniformly for all reaches including those unaltered by learning. This uniform shift during learning implies formation of new neural activity patterns, which was not observed in other short-term learning contexts5–8. During a washout period when the curl field was removed, movement kinetics gradually reverted, but the learning-induced uniform shift of preparatory activity persisted and a second, orthogonal uniform shift occurred. This persistent shift may retain a motor memory of the learned field9–11, consistent with faster relearning of the same curl field observed behaviorally and neurally. When multiple different curl fields were learned sequentially, we found distinct uniform shifts, each reflecting the identity of the field applied and potentially separating the associated motor memories12,13. The neural geometry of these shifts in preparatory activity could serve to organize skill-specific changes in movement production, facilitating the acquisition and retention of a broad motor repertoire.

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Posted January 31, 2020.
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Skill-specific changes in cortical preparatory activity during motor learning
Xulu Sun, Daniel J. O’Shea, Matthew D. Golub, Eric M. Trautmann, Saurabh Vyas, Stephen I. Ryu, Krishna V. Shenoy
bioRxiv 2020.01.30.919894; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.30.919894
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Skill-specific changes in cortical preparatory activity during motor learning
Xulu Sun, Daniel J. O’Shea, Matthew D. Golub, Eric M. Trautmann, Saurabh Vyas, Stephen I. Ryu, Krishna V. Shenoy
bioRxiv 2020.01.30.919894; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.01.30.919894

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