Quantification of Movement-Related EEG Correlates Associated with Motor Training: A Study on Movement-Related Cortical Potentials and Sensorimotor Rhythms.

Mads Jochumsen,Cecilie Rovsing,Sylvain Cremoux,Imran K Niazi,Nada Signal,Denise Taylor,Helene Rovsing,Kathryn Allen

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2017.00604

Abstract

The ability to learn motor tasks is important in both healthy and pathological conditions. Measurement tools commonly used to quantify the neurophysiological changes associated with motor training such as transcranial magnetic stimulation and functional magnetic resonance imaging pose some challenges, including safety concerns, utility, and cost. EEG offers an attractive alternative as a quantification tool. Different EEG phenomena, movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) and sensorimotor rhythms (event-related desynchronization—ERD, and event-related synchronization—ERS), have been shown to change with motor training, but conflicting results have been reported. The aim of this study was to investigate how the EEG correlates (MRCP and ERD/ERS) from the motor cortex are modulated by short (single session in 14 subjects) and long (six sessions in 18 subjects) motor training. Ninety palmar grasps were performed before and after 1 × 45 (or 6 × 45) min of motor training with the non-dominant hand (laparoscopic surgery simulation). Four channels of EEG were recorded continuously during the experiments. The MRCP and ERD/ERS from the alpha/mu and beta bands were calculated and compared before and after the training. An increase in the MRCP amplitude was observed after a single session of training, and a decrease was observed after six sessions. For the ERD/ERS analysis, a significant change was observed only after the single training session in the beta ERD. In conclusion, the MRCP and ERD change as a result of motor training, but they are subject to a marked intra- and inter-subject variability.

Highlights

Acquiring motor skills is important throughout the lifespan, learning to ride a bike, learning new fine motor skills with the hands or relearning movements that are lost due to acquired brain injury such as stroke
The aims of this study were to investigate how the amplitude of the different segments of the movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) and the event-related desynchronization (ERD)/event-related synchronization (ERS) magnitude in the alpha and beta band are affected by motor training of a highly skilled hand motor task after (1) a single session and (2) multiple sessions using a limited number of EEG electrodesof motor training
Two subjects were excluded from the single session motor training analysis and one subject from the control experiment since all the EEG epochs in the post sessions were rejected due to the criteria mentioned above

Summary

Introduction

Acquiring motor skills is important throughout the lifespan, learning to ride a bike, learning new fine motor skills with the hands or relearning movements that are lost due to acquired brain injury such as stroke. Changes in neural plasticity have been reported in numerous studies of motor skill leaning (Pascual-Leone et al, 1995, 2005), following stroke and during post-stroke motor rehabilitation (Cramer, 2008a,b; Dimyan and Cohen, 2011) These changes include altered cortical maps and changes in the excitability of the neural pathways in the brain. There are a number of contraindications to the use of TMS that leads to the exclusion of many participants in research studies (Rossi et al, 2009) It would be preferable if the changes in neural plasticity associated with motor training and learning could be quantified using a simple, cost-effective technique. We wanted to investigate if other EEG derived measures, namely the movement-related cortical potential (MRCPs) and event-related synchronization/desynchronization could be used to measure changes neural plasticity with motor learning (Hatta et al, 2009; Masaki and Sommer, 2012; Aono et al, 2013)

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion