@article{ref1,
title="Self-generated movements with "unexpected" sensory consequences",
journal="Current biology",
year="2014",
author="Tiriac, Alexandre and Del Rio-Bermudez, Carlos and Blumberg, Mark S.",
volume="24",
number="18",
pages="2136-2141",
abstract="The nervous systems of diverse species, including worms and humans, possess mechanisms for distinguishing between sensations arising from self-generated (i.e., expected) movements from those arising from other-generated (i.e., unexpected) movements [1-3]. To make this critical distinction, animals generate copies, or corollary discharges, of motor commands [4, 5]. Corollary discharge facilitates the selective gating of reafferent signals arising from self-generated movements, thereby enhancing detection of novel stimuli [6-10]. However, for a developing nervous system, such sensory gating would be counterproductive if it impedes transmission of the very activity upon which activity-dependent mechanisms depend [11]. In infant rats during active (or REM) sleep-a behavioral state that predominates in early infancy [12-16]-neural circuits within the brainstem [17, 18] trigger hundreds of thousands of myoclonic twitches each day [19]. The putative contribution of these self-generated movements to the activity-dependent development of the sensorimotor system is supported by the observation that reafference from twitching limbs reliably and substantially triggers brain activity [20-23]. In contrast, under identical testing conditions, even the most vigorous wake movements reliably fail to trigger reafferent brain activity [21-23]. One hypothesis that accounts for this paradox is that twitches, uniquely among self-generated movements, lack corollary discharge [23]. Here, we test this hypothesis in newborn rats by manipulating the degree to which self-generated movements are expected and, therefore, their presumed recruitment of corollary discharge. We show that twitches, although self-generated, are processed as if they are unexpected.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="0960-9822",
doi="10.1016/j.cub.2014.07.053",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2014.07.053"
}