Abstract Representations of Sensorimotor Transformations in Human Premotor Cortex
Humans flexibly adapt their movements across contexts to implement a vast repertoire of skills. This means the motor system should not only encode movement-specific information, but also context-specific representations linking goals to actions. Here we asked if and how the human sensorimotor cortex encodes different latent mappings between visual goals and movements. Participants learned to…
The human sensorimotor cortex demonstrates the ability to encode abstract representations of sensorimotor transformations, according to recent research. Participants in the study learned to adapt their wrist movements under two different visuomotor transformations, either rotating or reflecting a visual cursor away from their hand movement.
By analyzing the functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data collected during the task, the researchers were able to separate neural activity patterns related to transformation context, movement direction, and target location.
The findings revealed distinct representational profiles within the sensorimotor cortex. Specifically, activity patterns in the premotor cortex tracked both movement direction and transformation context, while activity patterns in the primary motor cortex tracked movement direction but not transformation context. The researchers observed that stronger encoding of transformation context in the dorsal premotor cortex was associated with better task performance, linking the neural effects to behavior.
These results suggest that the premotor cortex has the capacity to represent sensorimotor context abstracted from movement particulars. This could serve as a potential neural interface between abstract action policies and motor commands, providing valuable insights into the flexibility of the human motor system in adapting to different contexts.
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