Practice changes beta power at rest and its modulation during movement in healthy subjects but not in patients with Parkinson's disease

Abstract

Background PD (Parkinson's disease) is characterized by impairments in cortical plasticity, in beta frequency at rest and in beta power modulation during movement (i.e., event‐related ERS [synchronization] and ERD [desynchronization]). Recent results with experimental protocols inducing long‐term potentiation in healthy subjects suggest that cortical plasticity phenomena might be reflected by changes of beta power recorded with EEG during rest. Here, we determined whether motor practice produces changes in beta power at rest and during movements in both healthy subjects and patients with PD. We hypothesized that such changes would be reduced in PD.MethodsWe thus recorded EEG in patients with PD and age‐matched controls before, during and after a 40‐minute reaching task. We determined posttask changes of beta power at rest and assessed the progressive changes of beta ERD and ERS during the task over frontal and sensorimotor regions.ResultsWe found that beta ERS and ERD changed significantly with practice in controls but not in PD. In PD compared to controls, beta power at rest was greater over frontal sensors but posttask changes, like those during movements, were far less evident. In both groups, kinematic characteristics improved with practice; however, there was no correlation between such improvements and the changes in beta power.ConclusionsWe conclude that prolonged practice in a motor task produces use‐dependent modifications that are reflected in changes of beta power at rest and during movement. In PD, such changes are significantly reduced; such a reduction might represent, at least partially, impairment of cortical plasticity.

Striatal Dopaminergic Innervation Regulates Subthalamic Beta-Oscillations and Cortical-Subcortical Coupling during Movements: Preliminary Evidence in Subjects with Parkinson’s Disease

“…Topological maps of these parameters showed two main clusters around CCP3h and CCP4h, as described also in previous studies (Alegre et al, 2005; Meziane et al, 2015; Moisello et al, 2015). Accordingly, we defined two region of interest (ROI) of eight electrodes surrounding CCP3h and CCP4h respectively.…”

“…In particular, movement execution and imagination are associated with beta power changes (Cassidy et al, 2002; Kühn et al, 2004), starting with a decrease or desynchronization in the pre-movement period (event-related desynchronization, ERD) followed by a rebound after movement termination (event-related synchronization, ERS; Cassidy et al, 2002). A similar dynamic pattern of movement-related beta modulation is also present at the cortical level with a morphology that does not substantially differ from that recorded from control subjects (Soikkeli et al, 1991; Alegre et al, 2005; Devos et al, 2006; Meziane et al, 2015; Moisello et al, 2015). Moreover, excessive cortical beta power at rest has been recently correlated with greater movement-related beta-modulation and motor performances (Heinrichs-Graham and Wilson, 2016).…”

“…The motor tasks have been extensively described in previous studies (Ghilardi et al, 2000; Perfetti et al, 2010; Isaias et al, 2011; Moisello et al, 2015). Briefly, subjects performed a single, multi-joint, uncorrected movement, as accurate and as fast as possible (Figure S1, Supplementary Material).…”

Beta Oscillatory Changes and Retention of Motor Skills during Practice in Healthy Subjects and in Patients with Parkinson's Disease

“…We focused our analyses on beta modulation depth, a measure independent from changes of mean power, and on the activity of the electrodes over the left sensory-motor area where practice-related changes are more notable (Moisello et al, 2015b). …”

How to Measure the Psychological “Flow”? A Neuroscience Perspective

“…The ERS/ERD modulation in this frequency range was increased after training (Moisello et al, 2015), a condition that must facilitate the flow emergence.…”