Abstract
Beta power over the sensorimotor areas starts decreasing just before movement execution (event-related desynchronization, ERD) and increases post-movement (event-related synchronization, ERS). In this study, we determined whether the magnitude of beta ERD, ERS and modulation depth are linked to movement characteristics, such as movement length and velocity. Brain activity was recorded with a 256-channels EEG system in 35 healthy subjects performing fast, uncorrected reaching movements to targets located at three distances. We found that the temporal profiles of velocity were bell-shaped and scaled to the appropriate target distance. However, the magnitude of beta ERD, ERS and modulation depth, as well as their timing, did not significantly change and were not related to movement features.
Highlights
Voluntary movements are associated with EEG oscillatory activity in different frequency bands (Babiloni et al, 2016, 2017)
We found no significant effect of target distance on ERD (F(2,68) = 2.37, p = 0.101, η2p = 0.065), ERS (F(1.67,56.69) = 2.46, p = 0.104, η2p = 0.067) and modulation depth magnitude (F (1.67,57.61) = 2.34, p = 0.109, η2p = 0.066; Figures 1D, 2B)
The main result of this study is that the magnitudes of beta ERD, ERS and modulation depth over the sensorimotor areas do not change with either movement length or target direction
Summary
Voluntary movements are associated with EEG oscillatory activity in different frequency bands (Babiloni et al, 2016, 2017). The power of beta rhythm (15–30 Hz) recorded over sensorimotor areas decreases before movement onset, reaches its negative peak during execution (event-related desynchronization, ERD) and sharply rebounds afterwards (event-related synchronization, ERS; Pfurtscheller and Lopes da Silva, 1999; Toma et al, 2002; Kilavik et al, 2013) These movement-related changes can be captured by modulation depth, a measure independent from general spectrum changes (computed as the difference between maximal ERD and ERS) that increases with practice (Nelson et al, 2017). Beta ERD may release motor areas from idle state to plan and execute movements, while beta ERS may reflect post-movement active inhibition of the motor network and reactivation of somatosensory areas (Alegre et al, 2008; Solis-Escalante et al, 2012) This oscillatory dynamic is present during movements with different effectors and characteristics (Pfurtscheller and Lopes da Silva, 1999; Tombini et al, 2009; Moisello et al, 2015; Nelson et al, 2017). It is indisputable that beta modulation is linked to movement planning and execution
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