Abstract
There is increasing evidence that hand immobilization is associated with various changes in the brain. Indeed, beta band coherence is strongly related to motor act and sensitive stimuli. In this study we investigate the electrophysiological and cortical changes that occur when subjects are submitted to hand immobilization. We hypothesized that beta coherence oscillations act as a mechanism underlying inter- and intra-hemispheric changes. As a methodology for our study fifteen healthy individuals between the ages of 20 and 30 years were subjected to a right index finger task before and after hand immobilization while their brain activity pattern was recorded using quantitative electroencephalography. This analysis revealed that hand immobilization caused changes in frontal, central and parietal areas of the brain. The main findings showed a lower beta-2 band in frontal regions and greater cortical activity in central and parietal areas. In summary, the coherence increased in the frontal, central and parietal cortex, due to hand immobilization and it adjusted the brains functioning, which had been disrupted by the procedure. Moreover, the brain adaptation upon hand immobilization of the subjects involved inter- and intra-hemispheric changes.
Highlights
During their lifetime, human beings are highly likely to suffer accidents that can provoke hand immobilization (HI), which may temporarily or permanently impair the hand movements, and may induce changes in the cortical organization [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]
The objective of this study is to shed light on the cortical coupling changes that occur when individuals are submitted to hand restriction
Based on previous electrophysiological findings, we hypothesized that beta band coherence oscillations act as main neural mechanism underlying information processing, which changes after hand immobilization
Summary
Human beings are highly likely to suffer accidents that can provoke hand immobilization (HI), which may temporarily or permanently impair the hand movements, and may induce changes in the cortical organization [1], [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. QEEG can be employed to observe electro-cortical alterations produced by HI of the subjects right hand [11], [12]., We used coherence measures on beta band (b) (12 to 30Hz) which has been related to pre-motor and motor cortical regions during movement, attention tasks and cognitive functions in general [13], [14]. A coherence decrease appears to act as a neural tracer of implicit memory (i.e., motor procedures) [16]. For this reason, in our experiment we used coherence to examine beta bands on the prefrontal and premotor scalp areas that are associated with motivation, planning and motor programming (F3-FZ/F4-FZ/F3-F4). We hypothesized that greater coupling occurs within inter- and intra-hemispheric cortical areas due to a new motor planning and sensorimotor integration to execute motor acts after hand immobilization
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