On the neural basis of sensory weighting: Alpha, beta and gamma modulations during complex movements

Abstract

. On the neural basis of sensory weighting: Alpha, beta and gamma modulations during complex movements. NeuroImage, Elsevier, 2017, 150, pp.200 -212. 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017 Previous studies have revealed that visual and somatosensory information is processed as a function of its relevance during movement execution. We thus performed spectral decompositions of ongoing neural activities within the somatosensory and visual areas while human participants performed a complex visuomotor task. In this task, participants followed the outline of irregular polygons with a pen-controlled cursor. At unpredictable times, the motion of the cursor deviated 120°with respect to the actual pen position creating an incongruence between visual and somatosensory inputs, thus increasing the importance of visual feedback to control the movement as suggested in previous studies. We found that alpha and beta power significantly decreased in the visual cortex during sensory incongruence when compared to unperturbed conditions. This result is in line with an increased gain of visual inputs during sensory incongruence. In parallel, we also found a simultaneous decrease of gamma and beta power in sensorimotor areas which has not been reported previously. The gamma desynchronization suggests a reduced integration of somatosensory inputs for controlling movements with sensory incongruence while beta ERD could be more specifically linked to sensorimotor adaptation processes.

Mirror Illusion Modulates M1 Activities and Functional Connectivity Patterns of Perceptual–Attention Circuits During Bimanual Movements: A Magnetoencephalography Study

“…The results of the effect of MVF on the alpha band functional connectivity between V1 and STG were consistent with the perspective that alpha oscillations (8-12 Hz) were considered to be a local marker of the somatosensory and visual cortices excitability level, with a smaller alpha power being associated with greater excitability (Pfurtscheller and Lopes da Silva, 1999;Anderson and Ding, 2011;Lebar et al, 2017). Lebar et al (2017), for example, found that alpha power significantly decreased in the visual cortex, indicating an increased gain of visual inputs during sensory incongruence compared with unperturbed conditions. Thus, this study further confirmed the role of alpha oscillation on visual sensory detectability and discriminability.…”

Neural Mechanism of Altered Limb Perceptions Caused by Temporal Sensorimotor Incongruence

“…It is established that movement accuracy is controlled by sensory feedback (Sperry, 1950 ; Wolpert et al, 1995 ) and experimental disturbances of sensory feedback reportedly reduce the accuracy of movements (Brandes et al, 2016 ; Lebar et al, 2017 ; Osumi et al, 2018 ). Additionally, subjective heaviness was altered with sensorimotor incongruence (Kuppuswamy et al, 2016 ).…”

“…Indeed, several studies of healthy subjects indicate incongruence between the proprioception associated with motor commands and visual feedback altered limb perceptions, such as pain heaviness extra limb and limb loss (McCabe et al, 2005 ; Foell et al, 2013 ). We previously showed that sensorimotor incongruence causes peculiarity (Katayama et al, 2016 ), and others showed that experimental modulation of sensory feedback reduces the accuracy of movements (Brandes et al, 2016 ; Lebar et al, 2017 ). These reports have clarified the influence of spatial sensorimotor incongruence on body perceptions, peculiarity and motor control.…”

Three distinct neural mechanisms support movement-induced analgesia

“…The functional state of the cerebral cortex can be partly indexed by spontaneous alpha oscillations, which would be dynamically modulated by hand movement and somatosensory feedback (43). For instance, alpha oscillations at bilateral central regions, originated from primary sensorimotor cortices, have been demonstrated to be desynchronized by voluntary movement and somatosensory stimulation, which is characterized as the decreased amplitude of the oscillations (44). Such a decrease was encoded by temporal anticipation, which subserved as a plausible mechanism for biasing subsequent perception and brain responses (45).…”