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A basic difficulty for the nervous system is integrating locally ambiguous sensory information to form accurate perceptions about the outside world (1-4). This local-to-global problem is also fundamental to motor control of the arm, because complex mechanical interactions between shoulder and elbow allow a particular amount of motion at one joint to arise from an infinite combination of shoulder and elbow torques (5). Here we show, in humans and rhesus monkeys, that a transcortical pathway through primary motor cortex (M1) resolves this ambiguity during fast feedback control. We demonstrate that single M1 neurons of behaving monkeys can integrate shoulder and elbow motion information into motor commands that appropriately counter the underlying torque within about 50 milliseconds of a mechanical perturbation. Moreover, we reveal a causal link between M1 processing and multi-joint integration in humans by showing that shoulder muscle responses occurring ~50 milliseconds after pure elbow displacement can be potentiated by transcranial magnetic stimulation. Taken together, our results show that transcortical processing through M1 permits feedback responses to express a level of sophistication that rivals voluntary control; this provides neurophysiological support for influential theories positing that voluntary movement is generated by the intelligent manipulation of sensory feedback (6,7)., Extensive research has shown that some of our fastest motor reactions express a degree of sophistication that rivals voluntary actions (8-10), but little is known about the neural substrates that [...]

Author(s): Paul L. Gribble [1]; Stephen H. Scott (corresponding author) A hallmark of the human motor system is its ability to adapt motor patterns for different environmental conditions, such as [...]

Author(s): Stephen H. Scott (corresponding author); Paul L. Gribble [1]; Kirsten M. Graham; D. William Cabel The population vector hypothesis was introduced almost twenty years ago to illustrate that a [...]

A group of regulatory neurons in the spinal cord has been found to reduce sensory feedback to muscles in mice. Removal of these neurons leads to repetitive limb oscillations during [...]