Journal of neurophysiology最新文献

{"title":"String-pulling by the common marmoset.","authors":"Mathilde Bertrand, Michael Karkuszewski, Rhonda Kersten, Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry, J Andrew Pruszynski","doi":"10.1152/jn.00561.2024","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00561.2024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Coordinated hand movements used to grasp and manipulate objects are crucial for many daily activities, such as tying shoelaces or opening jars. Recently, the string-pulling task, which involves cyclically reaching, grasping, and pulling a string, has been used to study coordinated hand movements in rodents and humans. Here, we characterize how adult common marmosets perform the string-pulling task and describe changes in performance across the lifespan. Marmosets (<i>n</i> = 15, 7 females) performed a string-pulling task for a food reward using an instrumented apparatus attached to their home-cage. Movement kinematics were acquired using markerless video tracking and we assessed individual hand movements and bimanual coordination using standard metrics. Marmosets oriented their gaze toward the string above their hands and readily performed the task regardless of sex or age. The task required little training and animals routinely engaged in multiple pulling trials per session, despite not being under water or food control. All marmosets showed consistent pulling speed and similar hand movements regardless of age. Adult marmosets exhibited a clear hand effect, performing straighter and faster movements with their right hand despite showing idiosyncratic hand preference according to a traditional food retrieval assay. Hand effects were also evident for younger animals but seemed attenuated in the older animals. In terms of bimanual coordination, all adult marmosets demonstrated alternating movement pattern for vertical hand positions. Two younger and two older marmosets exhibited idiosyncratic coordination patterns even after substantial experience. In general, younger and older animals exhibited higher variability in bimanual coordination than adults.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> Bimanual coordination is crucial for daily activities. In this study, we characterized how common marmosets performed the string-pulling task without extensive training, regardless of sex or age, and naturally exhibited a cyclical alternating pattern of hand movements. Although the overall behavior was similar across ages, younger and older marmosets demonstrated higher variability in bimanual coordination. These results establish the string-pulling task as a reliable tool for studying bimanual coordination and its underlying neural substrates.</p>","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1222-1233"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143649047","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Subcortical responses to continuous speech under bimodal divided attention.","authors":"Zilong Xie","doi":"10.1152/jn.00039.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00039.2025","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Everyday speech perception often occurs in multimodal environments, requiring listeners to divide attention across sensory modalities to prioritize relevant information. Although this division of attention modestly reduces cortical encoding of natural continuous speech, its impact on subcortical processing remains unclear. To investigate this, we used an audiovisual dual-task paradigm to manipulate bimodal divided attention. Participants completed a primary visual memory task (low or high cognitive load) while simultaneously performing a secondary task of listening to audiobook segments. Sixteen young adults with normal hearing completed these tasks while their EEG signals were recorded. In a third condition, participants performed only the listening task. Subcortical responses to the audiobook segments were analyzed using temporal response functions (TRFs), which predicted EEG responses from speech predictors derived from auditory nerve models. Across all conditions, TRFs displayed a prominent peak at ∼8 ms, resembling the wave V peak of auditory brainstem responses, indicating subcortical origins. No significant differences in latencies or amplitudes of this peak, nor in TRF prediction correlations, were observed between conditions. These findings provide no evidence that bimodal divided attention affects the subcortical processing of continuous speech, indicating that its effects may be restricted to cortical levels.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> This study shows that auditory subcortical processing of natural continuous speech remains unaffected when attention is divided across auditory and visual modalities. These findings indicate that the influence of crossmodal attention on the processing of natural continuous speech may be restricted to cortical levels.</p>","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1216-1221"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143649194","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Cortical beta modulation during active movement is highly reproducible in healthy adults.","authors":"Linda Niemelä, Lola Lerche, Mia Illman, Erika Kirveskari, Mia Liljeström, K Amande M Pauls, Hanna Renvall","doi":"10.1152/jn.00377.2024","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00377.2024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The rolandic beta (13-30 Hz) rhythm recorded over the sensorimotor cortices is known to be modified by movement execution and observation. Beta modulation has been considered as a biomarker of motor function in various neurological diseases, and active natural-like movements might offer a clinically feasible method to assess them. Although the stability of movement-related beta modulation has been addressed during passive and highly controlled active movements, the test-retest reliability of natural-like movements has not been established. We used magnetoencephalography (MEG) to evaluate the reproducibility of movement-related sensorimotor beta modulation longitudinally over 3 mo in a group of healthy adults (<i>n</i> = 22). We focused on the changes in beta activity both during active grasping movement (beta suppression) and after movement termination (beta rebound). The strengths of beta suppression and rebound were similar between the baseline and follow-up measurements; intraclass correlation coefficient values (0.76-0.96) demonstrated high reproducibility. Our results indicate that the beta modulation in response to an active hand-squeezing task has excellent test-retest reliability: the natural-like active movement paradigm is suitable for evaluating the functional state of the sensorimotor cortex and can be used as a biomarker in clinical follow-up studies.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> This research demonstrates that the beta rhythm modulation related to active hand-squeezing task has an excellent test-retest reproducibility in healthy adults over a three-month follow-up period. This natural-like active movement is thus suitable for evaluating beta modulation to assess the functional state of the sensorimotor cortex and can be utilized as a biomarker, for example, in clinical longitudinal follow-up studies.</p>","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1067-1073"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143515791","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"δ-Containing GABA_A receptors on parvalbumin interneurons modulate neuronal excitability and network dynamics in the mouse medial prefrontal cortex.","authors":"Xinguo Lu, Hong-Jin Shu, Peter M Lambert, Ann Benz, Charles F Zorumski, Steven Mennerick","doi":"10.1152/jn.00495.2024","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00495.2024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), fast-spiking parvalbumin (PV) interneurons regulate excitability and microcircuit oscillatory activity important for cognition. Although PV interneurons inhibit pyramidal neurons, they themselves express δ subunits of GABA_A receptors important for slow inhibition. However, the specific contribution of δ-containing GABA_A receptors to the function of PV interneurons in mPFC is unclear. We explored cellular, synaptic, and local-circuit activity in PV interneurons and pyramidal neurons in mouse mPFC after selectively deleting δ subunits in PV interneurons (cKO mice). In current-clamp recordings, cKO PV interneurons exhibited a higher frequency of action potentials and higher input resistance than wild-type (WT) PV interneurons. Picrotoxin increased firing and GABA decreased firing in WT PV interneurons but not in cKO PV interneurons. The δ-preferring agonist THIP reduced spontaneous inhibitory postsynaptic currents disproportionately in WT pyramidal neurons compared with cKO pyramidal neurons. In WT slices, depolarizing the network with 400 nM kainate increased firing of pyramidal neurons but had little effect on PV interneuron firing. In contrast, kainate application in cKO slices preferentially activated PV interneurons rather than pyramidal neurons. At the population level, kainate induced broadband increases in local field potentials in WT but not in cKO slices. These results on cells and network activity can be understood through increased excitability of cKO PV interneurons. In summary, our study demonstrates that δ-containing GABA_A receptors in mPFC PV interneurons play a crucial role in regulating their excitability and the phasic inhibition of pyramidal neurons, elucidating intricate mechanisms governing cortical circuitry.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> We reveal the critical role of δ-containing GABA_A receptors in parvalbumin interneurons in the medial prefrontal cortex, important for human neuropsychiatric disorders. We demonstrate these receptors' importance in regulating neuronal excitability and network dynamics. δ-containing receptors act as a brake on interneuron activity, maintaining the excitation-inhibition balance in cortical circuits. Our findings provide insights into how disruptions in inhibitory signaling alter network function through a receptor subtype that is a target of neurotherapeutics.</p>","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1003-1013"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143515949","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Reply to Castro and Carvalho.","authors":"Sina Sangari, Alexandra Lackmy-Vallee, Arnaud Preuilh, Iseline Peyre, Pierre-François Pradat, Véronique Marchand-Pauvert","doi":"10.1152/jn.00093.2025","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00093.2025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":"133 4","pages":"1148-1149"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143772713","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Postural strategy for two potential targets considering motor costs for postural stabilization and probabilistic information.","authors":"Ryo Watanabe, Takahiro Higuchi","doi":"10.1152/jn.00308.2024","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00308.2024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>When an intended action has multiple potential goals, individuals should consider multiple possibilities about future events to react successfully. Previous studies on arm reaching using a \"go-before-you-know\" paradigm have found that hand trajectories under multiple potential targets were spatially averaged between targets and biased based on probabilistic information about the targets. Using a target-stepping task while standing, we recently observed that a prestep posture was planned more advantageously for stepping to the target with higher motor costs for postural stabilization. The present study aimed to examine whether such a postural strategy would be selected when the probability of a potential target with higher motor costs being selected as the true target was low. Fourteen participants (mean age 23.2 ± 4.6 yr) initiated stepping movements knowing only the probability of two potential targets and took a step onto a target revealed after step initiation. The results showed that the participants prepared their mediolateral posture state more advantageously to take a step onto the target with higher costs, even when it was selected with a lower probability. Prestep postures were also affected by the probability information, although the effects were small. Our simulations demonstrated that the postural strategy prioritizing motor costs was mechanically beneficial for affording time to take a step toward the true target while maintaining an upright posture. These findings suggest that, when maintaining postural stability is critical, the central nervous system considers the motor costs for postural stabilization in addition to probability information under multiple potential targets.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> Recent studies using a target-reaching task under a \"go-before-you-know\" paradigm have shown that individuals use probabilistic information when planning a motor strategy under multiple potential goals. We introduced this paradigm to a target-stepping task performed while standing and found that motor costs for postural stabilization were considered for initial posture planning under uneven probabilistic targets. These findings indicated that the central nervous system considers motor costs when planning postural strategies to minimize instability.</p>","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1191-1204"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143585928","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Hip posture affects the firing properties of motor units in the tibialis anterior muscle.","authors":"Tetsuya Hirono, Taian M Vieira, Alberto Botter, Kohei Watanabe","doi":"10.1152/jn.00448.2024","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00448.2024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>In this study, we contend the firing properties of motor units change due to nonphysiological sources. We specifically ask whether changes in the fibular nerve length, without a concurrent change in tibialis anterior architecture, affect motor unit firing and recruitment strategies. We tested this hypothesis based on high-density surface electromyograms (EMGs) collected from the tibialis anterior of 18 healthy young adults for two hip postures, flexed and extended. To control for changes in peripheral nerve length, conduction time between electrical stimulation and generation of compound action potentials in extensor digitorum brevis was measured for the two hip postures during rest. Motor units were decomposed from EMGs obtained during sustained isometric dorsiflexion at 10% of the maximal voluntary contraction (MVC), and during ramp isometric contractions up to 20% MVC. Individual motor unit firings were identified and tracked between the two postures. Nerve conduction time was significantly shorter in hip flexed than in hip extended posture (<i>P</i> < 0.01), suggesting that peripheral nerve was stretched in the flexed hip posture. MVC torque was not different between flexed and extended postures (<i>P</i> = 0.254). Motor unit firing rates during sustained contraction at 10% of MVC, and during ramp-up contraction to 20% of MVC were significantly lower during flexed hip posture than during extended hip posture (<i>P</i> < 0.05). Hip flexion posture, which likely result in a stretching of the fibular nerve, was observed to reduce the average firing rate of active motor units during relatively low contractions.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> Peripheral nerve condition can affect motor unit activations. Sciatic and fibular nerves are stretched by ankle dorsiflexion, knee extension, and hip flexion. Hip flexion posture, which likely result in a stretching of the fibular nerve, was observed to reduce the average firing rate of active motor units during relatively low contraction. Proximal joint posture, which does not directly influence muscle architecture, should be considered to interpret neural input properties.</p>","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1074-1082"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143557169","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"How sub-optimal are the neural representations: show me your null model.","authors":"Movitz Lenninger, Arvind Kumar","doi":"10.1152/jn.00085.2025","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00085.2025","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1083-1085"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143515793","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Whole body coarticulation reflects expertise in sport climbing.","authors":"Antonella Maselli, Lisa Musculus, Riccardo Moretti, Andrea d'Avella, Markus Raab, Giovanni Pezzulo","doi":"10.1152/jn.00341.2024","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00341.2024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>Taking sport climbing as a testbed, we explored coarticulation in naturalistic motor-behavior at the level of whole body kinematics. Participants were instructed to execute a series of climbing routes, each composed of two initial foot-moves equal in all routes, and two subsequent hand-moves differing across routes in a set of eight possible configurations. The goal was assessing whether climbers modulate the execution of a given move depending on which moves come next in the plan. Coarticulation was assessed by training a set of classifiers and estimating how well the whole body (or single-joint) kinematics during a given stage of the climbing execution could predict its future unfolding. Results showed that most participants engage in coarticulation, with temporal and bodily patterns that depend on expertise. Nonclimbers tend to prepare the next-to-come move right before its onset and only after the end of the previous move. Rather, expert-climbers (and to a smaller extent, beginner-climbers) show early coarticulation during the execution of the previous move and engage in adjustments that involve the coordination of a larger number of joints across the body. These results demonstrate coarticulation effects in whole body naturalistic motor behavior and as a function of expertise. Furthermore, the enhanced coarticulation found in expert-climbers provides hints for experts engaging in more refined mental processes converting abstract instructions (e.g., move the right hand to a given location) into motor simulations involving whole body coordination. Overall, these results contribute to advancing our current knowledge of the rich interplay between cognition and motor control.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> The current study explores the way in which having formed a plan for a sequential motor task affects its execution. We showed that climbing expertise increases the extent to which participants adjust their motor execution based on the moves that follow in a planned route. These results provide evidence of coarticulation in naturalistic motor behavior and suggest enhanced skills in mentalizing forward motor control and optimal-control strategies in expert climbers.</p>","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1016-1033"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143416732","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Influence of age and feedback modality on the proprioceptive sense of force: insights from motor unit recordings.","authors":"Mélanie Henry, Abdulkerim Darendeli, Taylor Tvrdy, Sajjad Daneshgar, Roger M Enoka","doi":"10.1152/jn.00486.2024","DOIUrl":"10.1152/jn.00486.2024","url":null,"abstract":"<p><p>The primary purpose of our study was to compare the influence of feedback modality (visual vs. auditory) on force-reproduction accuracy in middle-aged and older adults. As a secondary objective, we investigated whether expected differences would be reflected in the neural drive sent to a hand muscle during the task. Participants (<i>n</i> = 42; 40-84 yr) performed a force-reproduction task with the first dorsal interosseus muscle at two target forces [5% and 20% of maximal voluntary contraction (MVC)]. Each trial involved a target phase that was guided by visual or auditory feedback and then a reproduction phase without feedback. The neural drive was characterized by measures of force steadiness and motor unit discharge characteristics during the target phase. Force-reproduction accuracy at the lower target force declined with increasing age and with visual feedback compared with auditory feedback. In contrast, there was no evidence of an effect of age or condition on force-reproduction accuracy at the moderate target force (20% MVC). Force steadiness was worse and motor unit coherence in the delta and beta bands was greater when the task was guided by auditory feedback at both target forces. These findings indicate that greater accuracy during the low-force task in the auditory-feedback condition was accompanied by a noisier control signal and differences in motor unit coherence in the delta and beta bands during the target phase.<b>NEW & NOTEWORTHY</b> The sense of force can be assessed with force-reproduction tasks, which typically involve visual feedback of the applied force during the target phase. Middle-aged and older adults improved force-reproduction accuracy when using auditory instead of visual feedback. This effect was accompanied by an increase in motor unit coherence in the beta band. This provides evidence for different sensorimotor processing of proprioceptive inputs when these sensory modalities are used to provide feedback of the applied force.</p>","PeriodicalId":16563,"journal":{"name":"Journal of neurophysiology","volume":" ","pages":"1103-1115"},"PeriodicalIF":2.1,"publicationDate":"2025-04-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"143523712","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"医学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}