Functional inhibition across a visuomotor communication channel coordinates looking and reaching

Understanding how natural behaviors are controlled depends on understanding the neural mechanisms of multiregional communication. Eye-hand coordination, a natural behavior shared by primates, is controlled by the posterior parietal cortex (PPC), a brain structure that expanded substantially in primate evolution. Here, we show that neurons within the saccade and reach regions within PPC communicate over a visuomotor channel to coordinate looking and reaching. During gaze-anchoring behavior, when saccades are transiently-inhibited by coordinated reaches, PPC neuron firing rates covary with beta-frequency (15-25 Hz) neuronal coherence. Decreases in parietal saccade neuron spiking correlated with gaze-anchoring behavior when the channel was 9open9 and not 9closed.9 Functional inhibition across beta-frequency-coherent communication channels may be a general mechanism for flexibly coordinating our natural behavior.