RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Dissociating the contributions of sensorimotor striatum to automatic and visually-guided motor sequences
JF bioRxiv
FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory
SP 2022.06.13.495989
DO 10.1101/2022.06.13.495989
A1 Kevin G. C. Mizes
A1 Jack Lindsey
A1 G. Sean Escola
A1 Bence P. Ölveczky
YR 2022
UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2022/11/16/2022.06.13.495989.abstract
AB The ability to sequence movements in response to new task demands enables rich and adaptive behavior. Such flexibility, however, is computationally costly and can result in halting performances. Practicing the same motor sequence repeatedly can render its execution precise, fast, and effortless, i.e., ‘automatic’. The basal ganglia are thought to underlie both modes of sequence execution, yet whether and how their contributions differ is unclear. We parse this in rats trained to perform the same motor sequence in response to cues and in an overtrained, or ‘automatic’, condition. Neural recordings in the sensorimotor striatum revealed a kinematic code independent of execution mode. While lesions affected the detailed kinematics similarly across modes, they disrupted high-level sequence structure for automatic, but not visually-guided, behaviors. These results suggest that the basal ganglia contribute to learned movement kinematics and are essential for ‘automatic’ motor skills but can be dispensable for sensory-guided motor sequences.Competing Interest StatementThe authors have declared no competing interest.