Abstract
While much is known about motor control during simple movements, corticomuscular communication profiles during compound movement control remain largely unexplored. Here, we aimed at examining frequency band related interactions between brain and muscles during different movement periods of a bipedal squat (BpS) task utilizing regression corticomuscular coherence (rCMC), as well as partial directed coherence (PDC) analyses. Participants performed 40 squats, divided into three successive movement periods (Eccentric (ECC), Isometric (ISO) and Concentric (CON)) in a standardized manner. EEG was recorded from 32 channels specifically-tailored to cover bilateral sensorimotor areas while bilateral EMG was recorded from four main muscles of BpS. We found both significant CMC and PDC (in beta and gamma bands) during BpS execution, where CMC was significantly elevated during ECC and CON when compared to ISO. Further, the dominant direction of information flow (DIF) was most prominent in EEG-EMG direction for CON and EMG-EEG direction for ECC. Collectively, we provide novel evidence that motor control during BpS is potentially achieved through central motor commands driven by a combination of directed inputs spanning across multiple frequency bands. These results serve as an important step toward a better understanding of brain-muscle relationships during multi joint compound movements.
Highlights
While much is known about motor control during simple movements, corticomuscular communication profiles during compound movement control remain largely unexplored
Regarding corticomuscular coherence (CMC) spectra of TAr, it is apparent that while individual spectral peaks vary, they accumulate within beta and gamma frequency bands (Fig. 2A)
This is valid throughout all muscles, as spectral peaks rarely were identical between participants
Summary
While much is known about motor control during simple movements, corticomuscular communication profiles during compound movement control remain largely unexplored. EEG was recorded from 32 channels -tailored to cover bilateral sensorimotor areas while bilateral EMG was recorded from four main muscles of BpS We found both significant CMC and PDC (in beta and gamma bands) during BpS execution, where CMC was significantly elevated during ECC and CON when compared to ISO. Beta-range CMC has been associated with fine motor control[16,22], motor preparation[23] and sensorimotor integration[24], while gamma-range CMC is assumed to reflect mechanisms underlying integration of task related cortical components during sensorimotor tasks[23,25], proprioceptive feedback[21,26], as well as visuomotor paradigms[27,28] Still, these results do not imply directionality between cortex and muscle activity, as CMC is undirected. We further hypothesized beta CMC to primarily reflect corticomotor drive and DIFEEG−EMG to be most prominent for beta CMC, while gamma CMC likely mirrors integration of afferent sensorimotor information and DIF to be DIFEMG−EEG
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