Year: 2020
Type: article
Abstract: Mice use reaching movements to grasp and manipulate objects in their environment, similar to primates. Thus, many recent studies use mouse reach to uncover neural control mechanisms, but quantification of mouse reach kinematics remains lacking, limiting understanding. Here we implement several analytical frameworks, from basic kinematic relationships to statistical machine learning, to quantify mouse reach kinematics across freely-behaving and head-fixed conditions. Overall, we find that many canonical features of primate reaches are conserved in mice, with some notable differences. Our results highlight the decelerative phase of reach as important in driving successful outcome. Late-phase kinematic adjustments are yoked to mid-flight position and velocity of the limb, allowing dynamic correction of initial variability, with head-fixed reaches being less dependent on position. Furthermore, consecutive reaches exhibit positional error-correction but not hot-handedness, implying opponent regulation of motor variability. Overall, our results establish foundational mouse reach kinematics in the context of neuroscientific investigation.
Source: Journal of Neurophysiology
Language: English
Topic: Motor Control and Adaptation
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: green
Awards: Rocky Mountain Neurological Disorders Core Center, G1664773227, G1967975743, Mechanisms of Purkinje Cell Encoding of Limb Kinematics in Skilled Reach, G3487519737, Medical Scientist Training Program, Neuronal Transdifferention in vivo: Mechanism and Potential, G7136131186, G7271271986, G915292147, G936248985, G957256043
OpenAlex ID: W3089348581