Transient feedforward communication between somatosensory and premotor cortex supports goal-directed behavior
- 1Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore, Singapore
Abstract
Goal-directed behavior requires sensory information to be transformed into motor commands, yet the precise temporal structure of communication between sensory and motor cortices during this process remains poorly understood. By simultaneously recording spiking activity from primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and secondary motor cortex (M2) in mice performing a tactile delayed go/no-go task, we identified a brief, stimulus-triggered communication window that predicted behavioral success. Time-shifted canonical correlation analysis revealed a sharp, feedforward surge in S1 → M2 coupling peaking at a short latency, as expected for a potentially direct transmission pathway. This transient interaction conveyed stimulus-selective information such that the S1 → M2 communication subspace aligned with stimulus-coding axes in both regions. In contrast, M2 → S1 feedback interactions were weaker and delayed. Brief optogenetic suppression of S1 reduced both M2 stimulus selectivity and behavioral discriminability, consistent with a functional role of the transient S1 → M2 coupling. These findings demonstrate that sensorimotor transformation is supported not by sustained linear coupling along the stimulus- or choice- axis, but by a short-lived and highly selective feedforward communication channel that rapidly transmits reliable sensory representations into motor-planning circuits.
Goal-directed behavior requires sensory information to be transformed into motor commands, but the structure of this sensorimotor communication in the brain is unclear. This study shows that brief, selective, feedforward coupling transmits sensory representations into motor-planning circuits.
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BibTeX
@article{ranjbarslamloo2026transient,
title = {{Transient feedforward communication between somatosensory and premotor cortex supports goal-directed behavior}},
author = {Yadollah Ranjbar-Slamloo and Tsukasa Kamigaki},
journal = {PLOS Biology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1371/journal.pbio.3004095},
url = {https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004095},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Transient feedforward communication between somatosensory and premotor cortex supports goal-directed behavior
AU - Yadollah Ranjbar-Slamloo
AU - Tsukasa Kamigaki
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/29
JO - PLOS Biology
DO - 10.1371/journal.pbio.3004095
UR - https://journals.plos.org/plosbiology/article?id=10.1371/journal.pbio.3004095
AB - Goal-directed behavior requires sensory information to be transformed into motor commands, yet the precise temporal structure of communication between sensory and motor cortices during this process remains poorly understood. By simultaneously recording spiking activity from primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and secondary motor cortex (M2) in mice performing a tactile delayed go/no-go task, we identified a brief, stimulus-triggered communication window that predicted behavioral success. Time-shifted canonical correlation analysis revealed a sharp, feedforward surge in S1 → M2 coupling peaking at a short latency, as expected for a potentially direct transmission pathway. This transient interaction conveyed stimulus-selective information such that the S1 → M2 communication subspace aligned with stimulus-coding axes in both regions. In contrast, M2 → S1 feedback interactions were weaker and delayed. Brief optogenetic suppression of S1 reduced both M2 stimulus selectivity and behavioral discriminability, consistent with a functional role of the transient S1 → M2 coupling. These findings demonstrate that sensorimotor transformation is supported not by sustained linear coupling along the stimulus- or choice- axis, but by a short-lived and highly selective feedforward communication channel that rapidly transmits reliable sensory representations into motor-planning circuits. Goal-directed behavior requires sensory information to be transformed into motor commands, but the structure of this sensorimotor communication in the brain is unclear. This study shows that brief, selective, feedforward coupling transmits sensory representations into motor-planning circuits.
SN - 1545-7885
ER -