Proprioceptive and visual feedback responses in macaques exploit goal redundancy

Abstract

A common problem in motor control concerns how to generate patterns of muscle activity when there are redundant solutions to attain a behavioural goal. Optimal feedback control is a theory that has guided many behavioural studies exploring how the motor system incorporates task redundancy. This theory predicts that kinematic errors that deviate the limb should not be corrected if one can still attain the behavioural goal. Several studies in humans demonstrate that the motor system can flexibly integrate visual and proprioceptive feedback of the limb with goal redundancy within 90ms and 70ms, respectively. Here we show monkeys (Macaca mulatta) demonstrate similar abilities to exploit goal redundancy. We trained four male monkeys to reach for a goal that was either a narrow square or a wide, spatially redundant rectangle. Monkeys exhibited greater trial-by-trial variability when reaching to the wide goal consistent with exploiting goal redundancy. On random trials we jumped the visual feedback of the hand and found monkeys corrected for the jump when reaching to the narrow goal and largely ignored the jump when reaching for the wide goal. In a separate set of experiments, we applied mechanical loads to the monkeys arm and found similar corrective responses based on goal shape. Muscle activity reflecting these different corrective responses were detected for the visual and mechanical perturbations starting at [~]90 and [~]70ms, respectively. Thus, rapid motor responses in macaques can exploit goal redundancy similar to humans, creating a paradigm to study the neural basis of goal-directed motor action and motor redundancy.