SPL_single_units_reaching_task

Single-cell recordings from three cortical parietal areas during an instructed-delay reaching task

Summary

We publish six electrophysiological datasets obtained from three regions (V6A, PEc, PE) within the superior parietal lobule (SPL) of two Macaca fascicularis monkeys (MonkeyS and MonkeyF). The datasets were collected during an instructed delayed foveated reaching task conducted in the absence of light. The task involved reaching towards nine targets positioned at varying depths and directions relative to the monkeys' point of view. We have recorded neural activity from 285, 231, and 166 individual neurons in V6A, PEc, and PE, respectively. Additionally, the timing of the main behavioral events for each trial is included. The data is stored in .h5 files, which offer a convenient hierarchical structure and the ability to attach various types of information to each hierarchical level. To help you get started, we also provide example code in MATLAB and Python for understanding the data structure.

Repository structure

Directory data

Contains six HDF5 files, each corresponding to a specific animal and area. The naming convention for these files is as follows:

1. MonkeyF_V6A_reach9pos.h5
2. MonkeyF_PEc_reach9pos.h5
3. MonkeyF_PE_reach9pos.h5
4. MonkeyS_V6A_reach9pos.h5
5. MonkeyS_PEc_reach9pos.h5
6. MonkeyS_PE_reach9pos.h5

Directory code

In the directory /code there are two subfolder, /code/matlab and /code/python each of them containing the matlab and python example script of two fucntion:

1. H5_raster.m or H5_raster.py generates a raster plot by plotting the neural and behavioral (event markers) data stored in a .h5 file. The plot displays the activity of a neuron over time, aligning it with specific events or conditions. To customize the plot, the user can modify the 'str' variable at the beginning of the script.
2. H5_ISI.m or H5_ISI.py computes the Inter Spike Intervals (ISIs) and creates a histogram to visualize the results. Additionally, it calculates the proportion of ISIs that exceed a chosen threshold (usually set at 1ms) and displays this information in the histogram. To tailor the analysis, the user can modify the 'str' variable at the beginning of the script.

Related Publications

• Diomedi, S., Vaccari, F. E., Filippini, M., Fattori, P., Galletti, C. (2020). Mixed Selectivity in Macaque Medial Parietal Cortex during Eye-Hand Reaching. IScience, 23(10), 101616. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.isci.2020.101616

• Diomedi, S., Vaccari, F. E., Galletti, C., Hadjidimitrakis, K., Fattori, P. (2021). Motor-like neural dynamics in two parietal areas during arm reaching. Progress in Neurobiology, 205, 102116. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pneurobio.2021.102116

• De Vitis, M., Tabanelli, M., Breveglieri, R., Filippini, M., Galletti, C., Fattori, P. (2022). The Superior Parietal Lobule of Macaque Monkey: Relative Influence of Gaze and Static Arm Position during Reaching. Eneuro, 9(1), ENEURO.0362-21.2021. https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0362-21.2021

• Filippini, M., Borra, D., Ursino, M., Magosso, E., Fattori, P. (2022). Decoding sensorimotor information from superior parietal lobule of macaque via Convolutional Neural Networks. Neural Networks, 151, 276–294. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neunet.2022.03.044

• Hadjidimitrakis, K., De Vitis, M., Ghodrati, M., Filippini, M., Fattori, P. (2022). Anterior-posterior gradient in the integrated processing of forelimb movement direction and distance in macaque parietal cortex. Cell Reports, 41(6), 111608. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2022.111608

Licensing

The six dataset in the directories data by University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

All code in the directories /code/matlab, /code/matlab/supportFunctions, /code/python, /code/python/supportFunctions are each published under the BSD 3 clause licenses.

Please see the LICENSE.txt or LICENSE files in individual subdirectories for detailed respective licenses of code and data.