Queuing of concurrent movement plans by Basal Ganglia

Bhutani, Neha and Sureshbabu, Ramakrishnan and Farooqui, Ausaf A and Behari, Madhuri and Goyal, Vinay and Murthy, Aditya (2013) Queuing of concurrent movement plans by Basal Ganglia. In: Journal of Neuroscience, 33 (24). pp. 9985-9997.

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Abstract

How the brain converts parallel representations of movement goals into sequential movements is not known. We tested the role of basal ganglia (BG) in the temporal control of movement sequences by a convergent approach involving inactivation of the BG by muscimol injections into the caudate nucleus of monkeys and assessing behavior of Parkinson's disease patients, performing a modified double-step saccade task. We tested a critical prediction of a class of competitive queuing models that explains serial behavior as the outcome of a selection of concurrently activated goals. In congruence with these models, we found that inactivation or impairment of the BG unmasked the parallel nature of goal representations such that a significantly greater extent of averaged saccades, curved saccades, and saccade sequence errors were observed. These results suggest that the BG perform a form of competitive queuing, holding the second movement plan in abeyance while the first movement is being executed, allowing the proper temporal control of movement sequences.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Journal of Neuroscience
Publisher:	Society for Neuroscience
Additional Information:	Copyright of this article belongs to Society for Neuroscience.
Department/Centre:	Division of Biological Sciences > Centre for Neuroscience
Date Deposited:	05 Aug 2013 11:52
Last Modified:	05 Aug 2013 11:52
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/46905

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