Cortical processing of flexible and context-dependent sensorimotor sequences

• Published in: Nature (London) Vol. 603; no. 7901; pp. 464 - 469
• Main Authors: Xu, Duo, Dong, Mingyuan, Chen, Yuxi, Delgado, Angel M., Hughes, Natasha C., Zhang, Linghua, O’Connor, Daniel H.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 17.03.2022; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/378/2632/1663; 631/378/3917; 64; 64/60; 96/44; Animals; Brain; Context; Cortex (motor); Electrophysiology; Genetics; Humanities and Social Sciences; Information processing; Jaw; Kinematics; Mice; Motor Cortex - physiology; Movement - physiology; multidisciplinary; Optics; Optogenetics; Reinforcement; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Sensorimotor system; Sensory feedback; Sequences; Somatosensory cortex; Somatosensory Cortex - physiology; Tongue; Tongue - physiology; Touch
• ISSN: 0028-0836; 1476-4687; 1476-4687
• DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-04478-7

The brain generates complex sequences of movements that can be flexibly configured based on behavioural context or real-time sensory feedback 1 , but how this occurs is not fully understood. Here we developed a ‘sequence licking’ task in which mice directed their tongue to a target that moved through a series of locations. Mice could rapidly branch the sequence online based on tactile feedback. Closed-loop optogenetics and electrophysiology revealed that the tongue and jaw regions of the primary somatosensory (S1TJ) and motor (M1TJ) cortices 2 encoded and controlled tongue kinematics at the level of individual licks. By contrast, the tongue ‘premotor’ (anterolateral motor) cortex 3 – 10 encoded latent variables including intended lick angle, sequence identity and progress towards the reward that marked successful sequence execution. Movement-nonspecific sequence branching signals occurred in the anterolateral motor cortex and M1TJ. Our results reveal a set of key cortical areas for flexible and context-informed sequence generation. A sequence licking task reveals a set of key cortical regions for the coding of movement sequences in mice.