The basal ganglia play a crucial role in the control of voluntary movements. Neurons in both the external and internal segments of the globus pallidus, the connecting and output nuclei of the basal ganglia, respectively, change their firing rates in relation to movements. Firing rate changes of movement‐related neurons seem to convey signals for motor control. On the other hand, coincident spikes among neurons, that is, correlated activity, may also contribute to motor control. To address this issue, we first identified multiple pallidal neurons receiving inputs from the forelimb regions of the primary motor cortex and supplementary motor area, recorded neuronal activity of these neurons simultaneously, and analyzed their spike correlations while monkeys performed a hand‐reaching task. Most (79%) pallidal neurons exhibited task‐related firing rate changes, whereas only a small fraction (20%) showed significant but small and short correlated activity during the task performance. These results suggest that motor control signals are conveyed primarily by firing rate changes in the external and internal segments of the globus pallidus and that the contribution of correlated activity may play only a minor role in the healthy state.

中文翻译：

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行为猴子的苍白神经元活动的弱相关

基底神经节在控制志愿运动中起着至关重要的作用。苍白球的外部和内部部分（基底神经节的连接核和输出核）中的神经元分别根据运动而改变其放电频率。运动相关神经元的发射速率变化似乎传达了运动控制信号。另一方面，神经元之间的同时尖峰，即相关的活动，也可能有助于运动控制。为了解决这个问题，我们首先确定了多个苍白神经元，它们从初级运动皮层和辅助运动区的前肢区域接收输入，同时记录了这些神经元的神经元活动，并在猴子执行伸手可及的任务时分析了它们的峰相关性。大部分（79％）的苍白神经元表现出与任务相关的激发率变化，而只有一小部分（20％）的神经元在任务执行过程中表现出显着的相关活动，而活动相关的程度较小。这些结果表明，运动控制信号主要是通过苍白球外部和内部部分的发射速率变化来传递的，并且相关活动的贡献在健康状态中可能只起很小的作用。