Affiliations: [a] Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan | [b] Department of Intelligence Science and Technology, Kyoto University and Exploratory Research for Advanced Technology – ERATO, Japan Science and Technology Agency Asada Project, Kyoto, Japan | [c] Section of Higher-Order Brain Functions, Brain Science Research Center, Tamagawa University Research Institute, Machida, Tokyo, Japan | Institute of Fluid Science, Tohoku University, Japan
Correspondence:
[*]
Address for correspondence: Toshi Nakajima, Department of Physiology, Graduate School of Medicine, Tohoku University, 2-1, Seiryo-Cho, Aoba-ku, Sendai, Miyagi 980-8575, Japan. Tel.: +81 22 717 8073; Fax: +81 22 717 8077; E-mail: toxinak@mail.tains.tohoku.ac.jp.
Abstract: To investigate the involvement of primate non-primary motor cortices in bimanual sequential movements, we recorded neuronal activity in the supplementary motor area (SMA) and presupplementary motor area (pre-SMA) while an animal was performing bimanual motor tasks that required two sequential arm movements consisting of either pronation or supination of the right or left arms with delay periods. We also recorded electromyograms (EMGs) from the arm while the animal performed the bimanual task to compare muscle and neuronal activity. This paper focuses on the neuronal activity before the onset of sequential movements. We found that the prime-mover forelimb muscles were selectively active when an impending arm movement involved recorded muscles, but was not dependent on whether the arm movements were bimanual or unimanual. In contrast, we found that neurons in the non-primary motor cortices showed different activity depending on whether the forthcoming sequential arm movements were unimanual or bimanual. Our results suggest that neuronal activity in the SMA and pre-SMA reflects higher-order information about arm use before motor execution. By extracting this type of information, we can use it to control prosthetic arms in a more intelligent manner through a brain-machine interface.
Keywords: Brain-Machine Interface (BMI), non-primary motor cortices, higher-order motor information
