Summary
The supplementary motor area of threeMacaca fascicularis was mapped using intracortical microstimulation (ICMS). Both forelimb and hindlimb movements were evoked using currents of 30 μA or less. However, thresholds for evoking movements were higher than those in the primary motor cortex. Proximal motor effects predominated, but distal joint movements were also elicited. Forelimb points were clustered in mesial cortex of area 6, anterior to the precentral hindlimb and tail region. Distal joint effects were located deep in the cortex, intermingled with proximal effects. Hindlimb responses which were less spatially localized, were found both ventral to the forelimb area, in the dorsal bank of the cingulate sulcus, and in mesial cortex, well anterior to area 4. No movements of facial muscles were elicited.
Injections of HRP were made into the spinal cord at the cervical level in two animals and the lumbar level in the third one. An area of labelled cells was seen in mesial area 6 which corresponded closely to the region from which ICMS effects were elicited. No movements were evoked from the anterior portions of the fundal region of the cingulate sulcus which were also labelled.
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Supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (grant no. 3.752.80)
Postdoctoral fellow of the MRC Canada
Postdoctoral fellow of the European Science Foundation
On leave of absence from the Atatürk University, Erzurum, Turkey
Postdoctoral fellow of the IBRO
On sabbatical leave from the Department of Physiology, University of Adelaide, South Australia
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Macpherson, J.M., Marangoz, C., Miles, T.S. et al. Microstimulation of the supplementary motor area (SMA) in the awake monkey. Exp Brain Res 45, 410–416 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01208601
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01208601