DOI: 10.5061/dryad.cvdncjtfq
title: Data from: Progressively shifting patterns of co-modulation among premotor cortex neurons carry dynamically similar signals during action execution and observation

description: Many neurons in the macaque premotor cortex show firing rate modulation
 whether the subject performs an action or observes another individual
 performing a similar action. Although such “mirror neurons” have been
 thought to have highly congruent discharge during execution and
 observation, many if not most actually show non-congruent activity.
 Studies of neuronal populations active during both execution and
 observation have shown that the most prevalent patterns of
 co-modulation—captured as neural trajectories—pass through subspaces which
 are shared in part, but in part are visited exclusively during either
 execution or observation. These studies focused on reaching movements for
 which low-dimensional neural trajectories exhibit comparatively simple
 dynamical motifs. But the neural dynamics of hand movements are more
 complex. We developed a novel approach to examine prevalent patterns of
 co-modulation during execution and observation of a task that involved
 reaching, grasping, and manipulation. Rather than following neural
 trajectories in subspaces that contain their entire time course, we
 identified time series of instantaneous subspaces, calculated principal
 angles among them, sampled trajectory segments at the times of selected
 behavioral events, and projected those segments into the time series of
 instantaneous subspaces. We found that instantaneous neural subspaces most
 often remained distinct during execution versus observation. Nevertheless,
 latent dynamics during execution and observation could be partially
 aligned with canonical correlation, indicating some similarity of the
 relationships among neural representations of different movements relative
 to one another during execution and observation. We also found that during
 action execution, mirror neurons showed consistent patterns of
 co-modulation both within and between sessions, but other non-mirror
 neurons that were modulated only during action execution and not during
 observation showed considerable variability of co-modulation.
description: # Progressively shifting patterns of co-modulation among premotor cortex
 neurons carry dynamically similar signals during action execution and
 observation Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.cvdncjtfq](10.5061/dryad.cvdncjtfq) ## Description of the
 data and file structure These source data files provide the processed data
 underlying Figure 5 - figure supplement 1 and Figure 8, panels C and D.
 ### Files and variables #### File:
 Figure5_FigureSupplement1_CumulativeSeparability.m **Description:** This
 MATLAB script contains the processed source data for Figure 5 - figure
 supplement 1, which can be loaded to a cell array in MATLAB by running the
 script. Numbers are arranged in 4x4 arrays that correspond to the 4x4
 color matrices of the figure. The values in Ex_self_sepa3d{9} and
 Obs_self_sepa3d{9} are from monkey T session 3, 'T_20220603',
 and are displayed as color matrices in A and B of ths figure. Averaging
 across all 9 sessions for Ex or Obs gives the values displayed as color
 matrices in C or D of the figure, respectively. #### File: Figure8CD.zip
 **Description:** The s#CC_for_plots_aug.mat files contain the canonical
 correlation coefficients which are loaded, extracted, and plotted by the
 MATLAB scripts Figure8C.m and Figure8D.m to create the respective panels
 of Figure 8. Files 's1...s4CC_for_plots_aug.mat' hold the
 correlation coeffecients for the Instruction (s1), Go (s2), Move (s3), and
 Hold (s4) trajectory segments. The correlation coefficients for each type
 of comparison (e.g. MNEx1Ex2) are held in a separate array in which
 columns are CC1, CC2, and CC3 for each of the analyzed sessions (rows). ##
 Code/software MATLAB R2019b or later is needed to view and process the
 data. #### File: Figure5_FigureSupplement1_CumulativeSeparability.m
 `Figure5FigureSupplement1_CumulativeSeparability.m` contains the processed
 source data for Figure 5 - figure supplement 1, which can be viewed with
 any text editor and can be loaded to a cell array in MATLAB by running the
 script. `Figure8CD.zip` contains several MATLAB files. The
 *s#CC_for_plots_aug.mat* files contain the canonical correlation
 coefficients which are loaded, extracted, and plotted by the MATLAB
 scripts *Figure8C.m* and *Figure8D.m* to create the respective panels of
 Figure 8. **Raw data:** The raw data requires ~1.5 Tb of storage space and
 therefore has not been shared on a publicly accessible server.  Here, we
 provide the raw data files from one of the 9 recording sessions (monkey R,
 session 2) used in the study.  Upon request, the remainder of these files
 are available from the lead contact, Marc H. Schieber
 ([mschiebe@ur.rochester.edu](mailto:mschiebe@ur.rochester.edu)).  Files
 will be sent on an external hard drive.  No application or project
 proposal is required.  The raw data are in *.NEV and *.NS5 file formats
 described in detail in the accompanying file,
 “LB-0023-7.00_NEV_File_Format.pdf.” (provided on Zenodo, Supplemental
 Information).  The `*.NEV `file contains numerical behavioral event marker
 codes and their timestamps.  The meaning of these numerical markers is
 given in the accompanying file, “Behavioral Event Marker Codes.xlsx.”  In
 this file, the numerical markers are listed in the sequence they appear in
 each successful trial. The `*.NS5` file contains simultaneous broadband
 recordings from 512 channels, 64 contiguous channels from each of 8
 cortical areas.  The file “ChannelIndex.xlsx” gives the cortical area for
 each of the 512 channels. The present study used only channels 65-128 from
 the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and 129 to 192 from the dorsal premotor
 cortex (PMd).  **Processed data:** These 9 files represent the processed
 data from the 9 recording sessions analyzed in the present paper. The
 processed data files are in *.NEX5 format described at
 [https://www.neuroexplorer.com/docs/guides/readwritefiles.html](https://www.neuroexplorer.com/docs/guides/readwritefiles.html) The *.NEX5 files contain the behavioral event marker codes and their timestamps.  The meaning of these numerical markers is given in the accompanying file, “Behavioral Event Marker Codes.xlsx.”  In this file, the numerical markers are listed in the sequence they appear in each successful trial. The *.NEX5 files also contain spike waveforms, clipped and sorted, with their timestamps, from each of the 512 channels, 64 contiguous channels from each of 8 cortical areas.  The file “ChannelIndex.xlsx” gives the cortical area for each of the 512 channels. The present study used only channels 65-128 from the ventral premotor cortex (PMv) and 129 to 192 from the dorsal premotor cortex (PMd).  The filename of the processed data file representing each session in the manuscript is documented in the associated file "Sessions.docx".   ## Access information Other publicly accessible locations of the data: * None ## Version changes **04-jul-2025:** Added processed data as *.NEX5 files for each of the 9 recording sessions