EEG oscillatory patterns are associated with error prediction during music performance and are altered in musician's dystonia

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Skilled performance requires the ability to monitor ongoing behavior, detect errors in advance and modify the performance accordingly. The acquisition of fast predictive mechanisms might be possible due to the extensive training characterizing expertise performance. Recent EEG studies on piano performance reported a negative event-related potential (ERP) triggered in the ACC 70ms before performance errors (pitch errors due to incorrect keypress). This ERP component, termed pre-error related negativity (pre-ERN), was assumed to reflect processes of error detection in advance. However, some questions remained to be addressed: (i) Does the electrophysiological marker prior to errors reflect an error signal itself or is it related instead to the implementation of control mechanisms? (ii) Does the posterior frontomedial cortex (pFMC, including ACC) interact with other brain regions to implement control adjustments following motor prediction of an upcoming error? (iii) Can we gain insight into the electrophysiological correlates of error prediction and control by assessing the local neuronal synchronization and phase interaction among neuronal populations? (iv) Finally, are error detection and control mechanisms defective in pianists with musician's dystonia (MD), a focal task-specific dystonia resulting from dysfunction of the basal ganglia–thalamic–frontal circuits? Consequently, we investigated the EEG oscillatory and phase synchronization correlates of error detection and control during piano performances in healthy pianists and in a group of pianists with MD. In healthy pianists, the main outcomes were increased pre-error theta and beta band oscillations over the pFMC and 13–15Hz phase synchronization, between the pFMC and the right lateral prefrontal cortex, which predicted corrective mechanisms. In MD patients, the pattern of phase synchronization appeared in a different frequency band (6–8Hz) and correlated with the severity of the disorder. The present findings shed new light on the neural mechanisms, which might implement motor prediction by means of forward control processes, as they function in healthy pianists and in their altered form in patients with MD.