Somatosensory input drives membrane potential dynamics in motor cortex during voluntary limb movement.

Overview

1. Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine in the Helmholtz Association (MDC), Berlin, Germany
2. Neuroscience Research Center, Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany
3. Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Institut des Neurosciences Paris-Saclay, Saclay, France

Abstract

How the motor cortex controls movement remains a fundamental question in neuroscience. Although somatosensory input is thought to influence motor cortex activity and the execution of voluntary movements, its role in driving motor cortex activity during voluntary behavior remains unclear. To address this, we performed whole-cell recordings from motor cortex neurons in mice during self-initiated, voluntary forelimb movements, either with intact somatosensory input or transection of the sensory nerves innervating the forelimb. In the absence of somatosensation, mice were still able to perform forelimb movements, including reaches, but these movements were significantly slower and more prolonged. Membrane potential recordings showed that cortical state changes were centrally generated, whereas external somatosensory input drives motor cortical activity before movement onset, curtails synaptic input during reaching to a hyperpolarized reversal potential value, and shapes membrane potential dynamics correlated with limb kinematics. Together, these findings demonstrate that somatosensory inputs play a central role in shaping motor cortex activity and its control of limb movement.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Data

Datasets cited

• zenodo:18254667 — at Zenodo; found in “Data Availability”

Data Availability

The data are available via Zenodo at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18254667 and in S1 Data.

Reproduced under the paper's license (CC BY), from the paper cited above.

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Version 1, 29 September 2026: the first record

Recorded: type, language, journal, volume, issue, pages, dates, 4 authors, 7 MeSH terms, 7 funders, 91 references, 1 integrity notice.

Cite

This paper

Voigt, B. C., Rau, F., Estebanez, L., & Poulet, J. F. A. (2026). Somatosensory input drives membrane potential dynamics in motor cortex during voluntary limb movement. PLoS biology, 24(4), e3003749. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3003749

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