Decoding of neural signals during the execution of motor skills in the mesencephalic locomotor region.

JORGE MIRANDE; ALVARO CONCHA; LEONARDO MOLANO RAMIREZ; DAMIAN HERNANDEZ; MARIA SOLEDAD ESPOSITO

Virtual

Congreso; Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias; 2021

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación en Neurociencias

The Mesencephalic locomotor region (MLR) is a shared structure among many species of the animal kingdom, from lampreys to human beings. It is known to contribute both to the generation and control of movement while performing motor tasks. Nucleuses identified within this region have shown involvement with their glutamatergic excitatory neurons in particular. On one hand, those who belong to the cuneiform nucleus (CN) are related to high-speed escape movements, while the ones in the pedunculopontine nucleus (PPN) get involved in slower processes associated with exploratory actions.But, can this classification be taken even further. Is there a particular posture, or action in which the neuron gets involved? Due to previous work, recurrent postures have been identified in mouses while performing a particular motor task, accelerating rotarod. With those postures, along with further data from recorded videos and electrophysiology obtained neuronal activity, a more specific type of ?event? can be looked after.In this work, we explore the different events which lead to the neuron's activation. We analyze from general characteristics to the modulation obtained from aligning the data to a specific posture. We have identified a consistent neuronal modulation, in all the animals, associated with those postures. We classify the different forms of modulation found within the data and gather them to make a populational study. Other events, as sudden tail base fall descends, have also shown activation on the neuronal activity, indicating a different type of event being modulated by the neurons.