Journal
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
Volume 12, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
NATURE PORTFOLIO
DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-22547-9
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Funding
- National Key RAMP
- D Program of China [2017YFA0103900/2017YFA0103901]
- CAS-NWO International Cooperation Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [153D31KYSB20160081]
- Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences [XDB32010000]
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [31571081]
- NSFC-ISF International Collaboration Research Project [31861143034]
- Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences, CAS [QYZDB-SSW-SMC045]
- Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project [2018SHZDZX05]
- Youth Thousand Talents Plan
- Simons Collaboration on the Global Brain Postdoctoral Fellowship
- CPSF-CAS Joint Foundation for Excellent Postdoctoral Fellows
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The study reveals dynamic coding of choice information in SC-projecting M2 neurons during motor planning and execution, with disruption of this information impairing decision maintenance. Excitatory and inhibitory SC neurons both receive synaptic inputs from M2, but display differential temporal patterns in choice coding during behavior.
Survival in a dynamic environment requires animals to plan future actions based on past sensory evidence, known as motor planning. However, the neuronal circuits underlying this crucial brain function remain elusive. Here, we employ projection-specific imaging and perturbation methods to investigate the direct pathway linking two key nodes in the motor planning network, the secondary motor cortex (M2) and the midbrain superior colliculus (SC), in mice performing a memory-dependent perceptual decision task. We find dynamic coding of choice information in SC-projecting M2 neurons during motor planning and execution, and disruption of this information by inhibiting M2 terminals in SC selectively impaired decision maintenance. Furthermore, we show that while both excitatory and inhibitory SC neurons receive synaptic inputs from M2, these SC subpopulations display differential temporal patterns in choice coding during behavior. Our results reveal the dynamic recruitment of the premotor-collicular pathway as a circuit mechanism for motor planning. Duan, Pan et al. find that the premotor cortex cooperates with the midbrain superior colliculus via direct projections to implement decision maintenance. These results reveal mechanisms of cortico-collicular interaction during cognition and action in a pathway- and cell-type-specific manner.
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