Signals from posterior parietal area 5 to motor cortex during locomotion

Abstract

Area 5 of the parietal cortex is part of the "dorsal stream" cortical pathway which processes visual information for action. The signals that area 5 ultimately conveys to motor cortex, the main area providing output to the spinal cord, are unknown. We analyzed area 5 neuronal activity during vision-independent locomotion on a flat surface and vision-dependent locomotion on a horizontal ladder in cats focusing on corticocortical neurons (CCs) projecting to motor cortex from the upper and deeper cortical layers and compared it to that of neighboring unidentified neurons (noIDs). We found that upon transition from vision-independent to vision-dependent locomotion, the low discharge of CCs in layer V doubled and the proportion of cells with 2 bursts per stride tended to increase. In layer V, the group of 2-bursters developed 2 activity peaks that coincided with peaks of gaze shifts along the surface away from the animal, described previously. One-bursters and either subpopulation in supragranular layers did not transmit any clear unified stride-related signal to the motor cortex. Most CC group activities did not mirror those of their noID counterparts. CCs with receptive fields on the shoulder, elbow, or wrist/paw discharged in opposite phases with the respective groups of pyramidal tract neurons of motor cortex, the cortico-spinal cells.