​​​​​Talk from Pierre Pouget - Institut du cerveau / ICM

Short abstract:​​

Goal-directed behavior in primates requires the flexible selection, monitoring, and control of actions based on internal goals and external environmental conditions. This dynamic process involves a distributed neural network that includes the frontal and parietal cortices, along with interconnected subcortical structures. A key component of this network is the medial frontal cortex (MFC), which comprises the anterior and medial cingulate cortex (ACC/MCC), pre-supplementary motor area (pre-SMA), supplementary motor area (SMA), and the supplementary eye field (SEF). We utilized the high signal-to-noise ratio from spatial changes in cerebrovascular blood volume (CBV) recorded with ultrafast ultrasound imaging (fUSi) to determine whether the intervals of breaks or the resumption of task-related CBV signals could predict the execution of an ongoing single action. We show that self-initiated eye movements activate the Supplementary eye field (SEF) and the midcingulate cortex (MCC) up to 5.5 seconds before movement execution. Importantly, our results show that a concurrent activity in the SEF and MCC predicts how these two regions might simultaneously exert opposing influences on the voluntary pause and resume of tasks on a single trial basis. The quantification of this dynamic interaction is a novel step for understanding voluntary action in primates and its ability to initiate one’s movement based on internal motivations rather than driven, instructed behavior.​​​