Sophisticated motor control hinges on three intertwined functions: motor planning, execution, and feedback adjustment, orchestrated by the sensorimotor cortices and basal ganglia. Although previous research has shed light on how the motor cortex interacts with other cortical areas, the detailed temporal dynamics across multiple brain regions remain unclear. To explore this, we employed a comprehensive electrophysiology platform, utilizing a brain- penetrating microwire array mated with a CMOS-MEA chip that spans over 9 mm^2 in the sensorimotor cortices (Obaid et al., 2020), capturing over a thousand spiking units in mice performing a forelimb reach-and-grasp task. We reconstruct the multiregional neural manifolds through nonlinear dimension reduction model LFADS and manifold alignment. The causal interactions in neural dynamics between the primary (MOp) and secondary (MOs) motor cortices and the primary somatosensory cortex (SOp) is reconstructed with S-map of the empirical dynamic modeling (EDM) framework at a single-trial resolution. Our findings indicate that before reaching onset, MOp intensifies interactions with MOs and SOp, while MOs and SOp sequentially engage with MOp for successful food grasping. In contrast, these interactions are disrupted or absent in failed trials, underscoring the criticality of precise coupling among these cortical regions for dexterous movement. Expanding our study, we concurrently recorded from the dorsolateral (DLS) and dorsomedial (DMS) striatum using specially developed subcortical microwire arrays. This approach and our discoveries establish a comprehensive framework for investigating brain-wide interactions in movement control.

Reference:

Obaid A*, Hanna M*, Wu YW* (co-first author), Kollo M*, Racz R, Angle MR, Muller J, Wray W, Franke F, Blackbill N, Chichilinsky EJ, Hierlemann A, Ding JB, Schaefer AT, Melosh NA (2020) Massively parallel microwire arrays integrated with CMOS chips for neural recording. Science Advances 6(12): eaay2789