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Neuronal activity of monkey dorso-lateral premotor cortex during tasks of figure recognition guided motor sequence vs memorized spatial motor sequence

Chen Yuchu, Huang Fude, Chen Nanhui, Shou Jianyong, Wu Li

Shanghai Institute of Brain Research，Chinese Academy of Sciences. Shanghai 200031,China

Abstract

In the last 2-3 decades the role of the premotor cortex (PM) of monkey in memorized spatial sequential (MSS) movements has been amply investigated. However,it is as yet not known whether PM participates in the movement sequence behaviour guided by recognition of visual figures (i. e. the figure-recognition sequence, FRS). In the present work three monkeys were trained to perform both FRS and MSS tasks. Postmortem exdrination showed tha 202 cells were in the dorso-lateral premotor cortex.Amng 111 cells recouled during the two tasks, more than 50% changed their activity during the cue periods in either task. During the response period, the ratios of cells with changes of firing rate in both FRS and MSS were high and mighly equal to each other,while during the image period, the proportion in the FRS (83.7%) was significantly higher than that in the MSS (66.7%). Comparison of neuronal activities during same
motor sequence of two different tasks showed that during the image periods PM neuronal activities were more closely related to the FRS task，while during the cue periods no difference could be found .Analysis of cell responses showed that the neurons with longer latency were much more in MSS than in FRS in either cue or image period .The present results indicate that the premotor cortex participates in FRS motor sequence as well as in MSS and suggest that the dorso-lateral PM represents another subarea in function shared by both FRS and MSS tasks.However, in view of the differences of PM neuronal responses in cue or image periods of FRS and MSS tasks，it seems likely that neural networks involved in FRS and MSS tasks are different.

Key words: Cell activity;Premtor area;Visual pattern;Sequential movement;Rhesus monkey

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Citing This Article：

Chen Yuchu, Huang Fude, Chen Nanhui, Shou Jianyong, Wu Li. Neuronal activity of monkey dorso-lateral premotor cortex during tasks of figure recognition guided motor sequence vs memorized spatial motor sequence. Acta Physiol Sin 1998; 50 (2): (in Chinese with English abstract).