Gain-field encoding

Gain field encoding is a hypothesis about the internal storage and processing of limb motion in the brain.

In the motor areas of the brain, there are neurons which collectively have the ability to store information regarding both limb positioning and velocity in relation to both the body (intrinsic) and the individual's external environment (extrinsic).

This process allows for motor coordination of flexible bimanual actions as opposed to restricting the individual to unimanual motion.

Further evidence suggests that the cerebellum and posterior parietal cortex (PPC) also play major functional roles in gain field encoding.

[7][8] This opposes the case of other parts of the PPC such as Brodmann area 5 which represents objects in relation to body defined coordinates.

Due to the extrinsic and intrinsic properties of motor functioning, it is speculated that these types of signals are both taken multiplicatively to form the gain field.

Unsurprisingly lesions in the parietal cortex lead to deficiencies in an individual's spatial movements and coordination and, in some cases, hemineglect.

[9] One of the key components of gain-field encoding is the variability in the response amplitude of the action potentials from neurons.

Gain Modulation takes place in many cortical areas and is believed to be a common mechanism of neuronal computation.

The multi-modal nature of these neurons makes them ideal for specific types of computations, mainly coordinate transformations.

One of the main results of gain-field encoding is the cognitive ability to manipulate different coordinate planes that are dealt with daily and adjust limb muscle movements accordingly.

However, more recent studies in which more complex motor movements are observed have found that the gain field is created multiplicatively in order to allow the body to adapt to the constantly changing frames of reference experienced in everyday life.

Observation of human developmental patterns also lend evidence toward this theory of gain-field encoding and gain modulation.

This provides your brain with the proper translations by aligning the retinal (extrinsic) and body-centered (intrinsic) representations of space.

A contrary hypothesis to gain field encoding involved implicating the neurons of the primary motor cortex (M1) in dynamic muscle movement.