Physiological and pathological oscillatory networks in the human motor system

Abstract

Human brain functions are heavily contingent on neural interactions both at the single neuron and the neural population or system level. Accumulating evidence from neurophysiological studies strongly suggests that coupling of oscillatory neural activity provides an important mechanism to establish neural interactions. With the availability of whole-head magnetoencephalography (MEG) macroscopic oscillatory activity can be measured non-invasively from the human brain with high temporal and spatial resolution. To localise, quantify and map oscillatory activity and interactions onto individual brain anatomy we have developed the ‘dynamic imaging of coherent sources’ (DICS) method which allows to identify and analyse cerebral oscillatory networks from MEG recordings. Using this approach we have characterized physiological and pathological oscillatory networks in the human sensorimotor system. Coherent 8 Hz oscillations emerge from a cerebello-thalamo-premotor-motor cortical network and exert an 8 Hz oscillatory drive on the spinal motor neurons which can be observed as a physiological tremulousness of the movement termed movement discontinuities. This network represents the neurophysiological substrate of a discrete mode of motor control. In parkinsonian resting tremor we have identified an extensive cerebral network consisting of primary motor and lateral premotor cortex, supplementary motor cortex, thalamus/basal ganglia, posterior parietal cortex and secondary somatosensory cortex, which are entrained in the tremor or twice the tremor rhythm. This low frequency entrapment of motor areas likely plays an important role in the pathophysiology of parkinsonian motor symptoms. Finally, studies on patients with postural tremor in hepatic encephalopathy revealed that this type of tremor results from a pathologically slow thalamocortical and cortico-muscular coupling during isometric hold tasks. In conclusion, the analysis of oscillatory cerebral networks provides new insights into physiological mechanisms of motor control and pathophysiological mechanisms of tremor disorders.