| Budget Amount *help |
¥3,600,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,600,000)
Fiscal Year 2003: ¥1,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,300,000)
Fiscal Year 2002: ¥2,300,000 (Direct Cost: ¥2,300,000)
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| Research Abstract |
Transformation of coordinates from visual to motor space in our brain is essential to achieve target-reaching by arm. Since it was found that the ventral premotor cortex(PMv) as well as cerebellum plays an important role in the sensorimotor integration and prism adaptation, it was investigated in this study how the cerebrocerebellar communication system contribute to the motor execution and learning. First, when a small amount of neuroanatomical tracer(Biotinylated Dextran Amine,BDA) was injected in to the PMv of monkeys where neurons with movement-related activity reflecting visual space were most frequently recorded, it was found that labeled neurons were densely located in area X of the motor thalamus. Second, thalamic neurons projecting to the cortical motor areas including the PMv were identified electrophysiologically in monkeys performing a wrist extension and flexion task in which the movement direction was instructed by auditory cues during the preparation period in each trial
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, followed by one of the three type of sensory signals(visual, auditory, or tactile) to initiate the movement. Two major task-related activities were recorded from the neurons, as found in the cortical motor areas : (1)movement-related activity with phasic changes immediately before movement onset and (2)set-related activity, a sustained change of activity throughout the preparation period after the instruction signal was presented. A majority of the activities were found to have preference for wrist movement directions. By contrast, no signal-related neuronal activity and modality specific movement-related activity were recorded, although such activities were frequently observed in the cortical motor areas. The results suggest that the projection system from the cerebellum to the cortical motor areas plays important roles in determination of movement-parameters and movement initiation, but contribute much less to sensorimotor conversion which is necessary for transformation of coordinates. Less
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