Long-lasting working memories of obstacles established by foreleg stepping in walking cats require area 5 of the posterior parietal cortex.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Walking animals rely on working memory to avoid obstacles. One example is the stepping of the hindlegs of quadrupeds over an obstacle. In this case, the obstacle is not visible at the time of hindleg stepping, because of its position between the fore and hindlegs, and working memory must be used to avoid it. We have previously shown that this memory is very precise and surprisingly long-lasting and that it depends on the stepping of the forelegs over the obstacle for its initiation. In this study, we test the hypothesis that area 5 in the posterior parietal cortex of cats is necessary for the maintenance of this long-lasting working memory. We report that small bilateral lesions to area 5 do not affect the amplitude of normal stepping of the hindlegs over obstacles, but they profoundly reduce the long-lasting working memory of obstacles. We propose that inputs to area 5 associated with foreleg stepping initiate long-lasting activity that maintains the memory of obstacle height in another brain region to guide the hindlegs over obstacles.
منابع مشابه
Lesions of area 5 of the posterior parietal cortex in the cat produce errors in the accuracy of paw placement during visually guided locomotion.
We developed a novel locomotor task in which cats step over obstacles that move at a different speed from that of the treadmill on which the cat is walking: we refer to this as a visual dissociation locomotion task. Slowing the speed of the obstacle with respect to that of the treadmill sometimes led to a major change in strategy so that cats made two steps with the hindlimbs before stepping ov...
متن کاملLong-lasting memories of obstacles guide leg movements in the walking cat.
We examined the ways in which memories of previously seen obstacles can alter the stepping of walking cats. Cats were paused after the forelegs, but not the hindlegs, had stepped over an obstacle. Near the beginning of a variable delay period, the obstacle was lowered. On the subsequent step, the path of the hindlegs allowed us to make inferences about whether the memory of the obstacle was inf...
متن کاملBiological components of sex differences in color preference
examined in this task: two were the same animals providing data shown in Figure 1B (cats 1 and 2), and the third (cat 4) was only tested in this task. The results for the three animals are shown in Figure 2B. With cat 1, the maximum step height remained higher than control values and usually higher than the rod height for all time durations we tested. With cat 2, the maximum step height was qui...
متن کاملPosterior parietal cortex estimates the relationship between object and body location during locomotion
We test the hypothesis that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) contributes to the control of visually guided locomotor gait modifications by constructing an estimation of object location relative to body state, and in particular the changing gap between them. To test this hypothesis, we recorded neuronal activity from areas 5b and 7 of the PPC of cats walking on a treadmill and stepping over a...
متن کاملNeurons in area 5 of the posterior parietal cortex in the cat contribute to interlimb coordination during visually guided locomotion: a role in working memory.
We tested the hypothesis that area 5 of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) contributes to interlimb coordination in locomotor tasks requiring visual guidance by recording neuronal activity in this area in three cats in two locomotor paradigms. In the first paradigm, cats were required to step over obstacles attached to a moving treadmill belt. We recorded 47 neurons that discharged in relation...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience
دوره 29 29 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2009