Biology subjects

Ölveczky, B. P.

Publications and source records attributed to Ölveczky, B. P..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2023

Differential kinematic coding in sensorimotor striatum across species-typical and learned behaviors reflects a difference in control

The sensorimotor arm of the basal ganglia is a major part of the mammalian motor control network, yet whether it is essential for generating natural behaviors or specialized for learning and controlling motor skills is unclear. We examine this by contrasting contributions of the sensorimotor striatum (rodent dorsolateral striatum, DLS) to spontaneously expressed species-typical behaviors versus those adapted for a task. In stark contrast to earlier work implicating DLS in the control of acquired skills, bilateral lesions had no discernable effects on the expression or detailed kinematics of species-typical behaviors, such as grooming, rearing, or walking. To probe the neural correlates underlying this dissociation, we compared DLS activity across the behavioral domains. While neural activity reflected the kinematics of both learned and species-typical behaviors, the coding schemes were very different. Taken together, we did not find evidence for the basal ganglia circuit being required for species-typical behaviors; rather, our results suggest that it monitors ongoing movement and learns to alter its output to shape skilled behaviors in adaptive and task-specific ways.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

The basal ganglia can control learned motor sequences independently of motor cortex

How the basal ganglia contribute to the execution of learned motor skills has been thoroughly investigated. The two dominant models that have emerged posit roles for the basal ganglia in action selection and in the modulation of movement vigor. Here we test these models in rats trained to execute highly stereotyped and idiosyncratic task-specific motor sequences. Recordings and manipulations of neural activity in the striatum were not well explained by either model, and suggested that the basal ganglia, in particular its sensorimotor arm, are crucial for controlling the detailed kinematic structure of the learned behaviors. Importantly, the neural representations in the striatum, and the control functions they subserve, did not depend on the motor cortex. Taken together, these results extend our understanding of basal ganglia function, by suggesting that they can control and modulate lower-level subcortical motor circuits on a moment-by-moment basis to generate stereotyped learned motor sequences.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Distinct roles for motor cortical and thalamic inputs to striatum during motor learning and execution

The acquisition and execution of learned motor sequences are mediated by a distributed motor network, spanning cortical and subcortical brain areas. The sensorimotor striatum is an important cog in this network, yet how its two main inputs, from motor cortex and thalamus respectively, contribute to its role in motor learning and execution remains largely unknown. To address this, we trained rats in a task that produces highly stereotyped and idiosyncratic motor sequences. We found that motor cortical input to the sensorimotor striatum is critical for the learning process, but after the behaviors were consolidated, this corticostriatal pathway became dispensable. Functional silencing of striatal-projecting thalamic neurons, however, disrupted the execution of the learned motor sequences, causing rats to revert to behaviors produced early in learning and preventing them from re-learning the task. These results show that the sensorimotor striatum is a conduit through which motor cortical inputs can drive experience-dependent changes in subcortical motor circuits, likely at thalamostriatal synapses.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

Discovering precise temporal patterns in large-scale neural recordings through robust and interpretable time warping

Though the temporal precision of neural computation has been studied intensively, a data-driven determination of this precision remains a fundamental challenge. Reproducible spike time patterns may be obscured on single trials by uncontrolled temporal variability in behavior and cognition, or may not even be time locked to measurable signatures in either behavior or local field potentials (LFP). To overcome these challenges, we describe a general-purpose time warping framework that reveals precise spike-time patterns in an unsupervised manner, even when spiking is decoupled from behavior or is temporally stretched across single trials. We demonstrate this method across diverse systems: cued reaching in nonhuman primates, motor sequence production in rats, and olfaction in mice. This approach flexibly uncovers diverse dynamical firing patterns, including pulsatile responses to behavioral events, LFP-aligned oscillatory spiking, and even unanticipated patterns, like 7 Hz oscillations in rat motor cortex that are not time-locked to measured behaviors or LFP.

neuroscience↗