02202nas a2200157   4500008004100000022001400041245009700055210006900152260001200221300001600233490000700249520171000256653001001966100002101976856004701997       1980                        eng d  a0022-307700aAmplitude of responses to perturbation in primate sensorimotor cortex as a function of task.0 aAmplitude of responses to perturbation in primate sensorimotor c  c12/1980  a1139–11470 v443 a1. Monkeys learned to maintain hand position against a range of background forces. Short-latency responses to passive wrist extension or flexion were recorded from units in areas 4, 3, 1, and 2. Response amplitude was studied as a function of background force direction (extension or flexion). 2. For 40% of the precentral and postcentral responses, response amplitude depended on constant force direction. For these dependent responses, amplitude with background force in one direction averaged 2.8 times amplitude with background force in the opposite direction. 3. Units for which background activity varied with constant force direction were designated task related. Dependent responses from area 4 task-related units were usually larger when background activity was greater and when background force direction matched the direction of the passive movement. 4. Dependent responses from area 4 task-related units occurred significantly later than nondependent responses from the same units. 5. Since most area 4 task-related activity was explicable as a result of peripheral input via the same oligosynaptic path mediating area 4 responses to passive movements (32), the present findings imply that area 4-task-related activity may result in large part from centrally mediated change in the access of short-latency peripheral input to area 4 units. 6. The dependence of responses from non-task-related area 4 units and from non-task-related and task-related postcentral units showed no dominant correlation with background activity or with background force direction. Their dependence appeared to require no explanation other than a change in peripheral input with change in background force direction.10aWrist1 aWolpaw, Jonathan  uhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7452325