Abstract
To prepare timely motor actions, we constantly predict future events. Regularly repeating events are often perceived as a rhythm to which we can readily synchronize our movements, just as in dancing to music. However, the neuronal mechanisms underlying the capacity to encode and maintain rhythms are not understood. We trained nonhuman primates to maintain the rhythm of a visual metronome of diverse tempos and recorded neural activity in the supplementary motor area (SMA). SMA exhibited rhythmic bursts of gamma band (30-40 Hz) reflecting an internal tempo that matched the extinguished visual metronome. Moreover, gamma amplitude increased throughout the trial, providing an estimate of total elapsed time. Notably, the timing of gamma bursts and firing rate modulations allowed predicting whether monkeys were ahead or behind the correct tempo. Our results indicate that SMA uses dynamic motor plans to encode a metronome for rhythms and a stopwatch for total elapsed time.
Highlights
Adaptive behavior benefits from the ability to discern temporal regularities in the environment
Nonhuman primates and other vertebrates are capable synchronizing their movements to periodic rhythms (Merchant et al, 2013; Takeya et al, 2017; Gamez et al, 2018), and we recently showed that monkeys can internally maintain rhythms of different tempos in the absence of overt motor actions (Garcıa-Garibay et al, 2016)
Our results show that bursts of lower gamma band activity (30–40 Hz) reflect the internally maintained tempos by a simple mechanism: the intervals defining the rhythm are encoded by the periodic onset of gamma bursts
Summary
Adaptive behavior benefits from the ability to discern temporal regularities in the environment To exploit these regularities, the brain must be able to measure time intervals between repetitive events (Buhusi and Meck, 2005; de Lafuente et al, 2015; Confais et al, 2012; Leon and Shadlen, 2003; Grahn and Brett, 2007; Merchant and Lafuente, 2014; Merchant et al, 2015), and use this timing information to anticipate future events (Goel and Buonomano, 2014; Jazayeri and Shadlen, 2010; Uematsu et al, 2017). The neuronal mechanisms that allow motor structures to encode rhythms of different tempos, in the absence of motor commands, are not yet completely understood
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