TY - JOUR
T1 - Internally Generated Preactivation of Single Neurons in Human Medial Frontal Cortex Predicts Volition
AU - Fried, Itzhak
AU - Mukamel, Roy
AU - Kreiman, Gabriel
N1 - Funding Information: The authors thank the patients for their cooperation in participating in the study. We also thank Eve Isham, Emily Ho, Kelsey Laird, Eric Behnke, Tony Fields, Sasha Kraskov, and Ariel Tankus. We thank David Freedman, Davide Zocolan, Robert Desimone, and John Maunsell for comments on the manuscript. This study was supported by a grant from NINDS (I.F.), NIGMS (G.K.), NEI (G.K.), NSF (G.K.), Klingenstein Fund (G.K.), Whitehall Foundation (G.K.), and a Human Frontiers Science Program Organization fellowship (R.M.).
PY - 2011/2/10
Y1 - 2011/2/10
N2 - Understanding how self-initiated behavior is encoded by neuronal circuits in the human brain remains elusive. We recorded the activity of 1019 neurons while twelve subjects performed self-initiated finger movement. We report progressive neuronal recruitment over ∼1500 ms before subjects report making the decision to move. We observed progressive increase or decrease in neuronal firing rate, particularly in the supplementary motor area (SMA), as the reported time of decision was approached. A population of 256 SMA neurons is sufficient to predict in single trials the impending decision to move with accuracy greater than 80% already 700 ms prior to subjects' awareness. Furthermore, we predict, with a precision of a few hundred ms, the actual time point of this voluntary decision to move. We implement a computational model whereby volition emerges once a change in internally generated firing rate of neuronal assemblies crosses a threshold.
AB - Understanding how self-initiated behavior is encoded by neuronal circuits in the human brain remains elusive. We recorded the activity of 1019 neurons while twelve subjects performed self-initiated finger movement. We report progressive neuronal recruitment over ∼1500 ms before subjects report making the decision to move. We observed progressive increase or decrease in neuronal firing rate, particularly in the supplementary motor area (SMA), as the reported time of decision was approached. A population of 256 SMA neurons is sufficient to predict in single trials the impending decision to move with accuracy greater than 80% already 700 ms prior to subjects' awareness. Furthermore, we predict, with a precision of a few hundred ms, the actual time point of this voluntary decision to move. We implement a computational model whereby volition emerges once a change in internally generated firing rate of neuronal assemblies crosses a threshold.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/79551658299
U2 - 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.045
DO - 10.1016/j.neuron.2010.11.045
M3 - Article
SN - 0896-6273
VL - 69
SP - 548
EP - 562
JO - Neuron
JF - Neuron
IS - 3
ER -