Spinal premotor interneurons controlling antagonistic muscles are spatially intermingled

Ronzano, R. et al. (2023) Spinal premotor interneurons controlling antagonistic muscles are spatially intermingled. eLife, 11, e81976. (doi: 10.7554/elife.81976) (PMID:36512397) (PMCID:PMC9844990)

Abstract

Elaborate behaviours are produced by tightly controlled flexor-extensor motor neuron activation patterns. Motor neurons are regulated by a network of interneurons within the spinal cord, but the computational processes involved in motor control are not fully understood. The neuroanatomical arrangement of motor and premotor neurons into topographic patterns related to their controlled muscles is thought to facilitate how information is processed by spinal circuits. Rabies retrograde monosynaptic tracing has been used to label premotor interneurons innervating specific motor neuron pools, with previous studies reporting topographic mediolateral positional biases in flexor and extensor premotor interneurons. To more precisely define how premotor interneurons contacting specific motor pools are organized, we used multiple complementary viral-tracing approaches in mice to minimize systematic biases associated with each method. Contrary to expectations, we found that premotor interneurons contacting motor pools controlling flexion and extension of the ankle are highly intermingled rather than segregated into specific domains like motor neurons. Thus, premotor spinal neurons controlling different muscles process motor instructions in the absence of clear spatial patterns among the flexor-extensor circuit components.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Bannatyne, Dr Anne and Maxwell, Professor David and Todd, Professor Andrew

Creator Roles

Bannatyne, B. A.: Formal analysis, Validation, Investigation, Visualization
Todd, A. J.: Conceptualization, Data curation, Funding acquisition, Validation, Investigation, Project administration
Maxwell, D. J.: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Validation, Investigation, Methodology

• Authors: Ronzano, R., Skarlatou, S., Barriga, B. K., Bannatyne, B. A., Bhumbra, G. S., Foster, J. D., Moore, J. D., Lancelin, C., Pocratsky, A. M., Özyurt, M. G., Smith, C. C., Todd, A. J., Maxwell, D. J., Murray, A. J., Pfaff, S. L., Brownstone, R. M., Zampieri, N., and Beato, M.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Psychology & Neuroscience
• Journal Name: eLife
• Publisher: eLife Sciences Publications
• ISSN: 2050-084X
• ISSN (Online): 2050-084X
• Published Online: 13 December 2022
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2022 Ronzano, Skarlatou, Barriga et al.
• First Published: First published in eLife 11: e81976
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License