Structure in Neural Activity during Observed and Executed Movements Is Shared at the Neural Population Level, Not in Single Neurons
Xiyuan Jiang,
Hemant Saggar,
Stephen I. Ryu,
Krishna V. Shenoy,
Jonathan C. Kao
Affiliations
Xiyuan Jiang
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
Hemant Saggar
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
Stephen I. Ryu
Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Neurosurgery, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Palo Alto, CA 94301, USA
Krishna V. Shenoy
Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Neurobiology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Department of Bioengineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Wu Tsai Neurosiences Institute and Bio-X Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA; Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA
Jonathan C. Kao
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA; Neurosciences Program, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA; Corresponding author
Summary: In multiple cortical areas, including the motor cortex, neurons have similar firing rate statistics whether we observe or execute movements. These “congruent” neurons are hypothesized to support action understanding by participating in a neural circuit consistently activated in both observed and executed movements. We examined this hypothesis by analyzing neural population structure and dynamics between observed and executed movements. We find that observed and executed movements exhibit similar neural population covariation in a shared subspace capturing significant neural variance. Further, neural dynamics are more similar between observed and executed movements within the shared subspace than outside it. Finally, we find that this shared subspace has a heterogeneous composition of congruent and incongruent neurons. Together, these results argue that similar neural covariation and dynamics between observed and executed movements do not occur via activation of a subpopulation of congruent single neurons, but through consistent temporal activation of a heterogeneous neural population.
