Central perception of position sense involves a distributed neural network – Evidence from lesion-behavior analyses

Proprioceptive information allows humans to perform smooth coordinated movements by constantly updating one's mind with knowledge of the position of one's limbs in space. How this information is combined with other sensory modalities and centrally processed to form conscious perceptions of limb position remains relatively unknown. What has proven even more elusive is pinpointing the contribution of proprioception in cortical activity related to motion. This study addresses these gaps by examining electrocortical dynamics while participants performed an upper limb position matching task in two conditions, namely with proprioceptive feedback or with both visual and proprioceptive feedback. Specifically, we evaluated the reduction of the electroencephalographic power (desynchronization) in the μ frequency band (8–12 Hz), which is known to characterize the neural activation associated with motor control and behavior. We observed a stronger desynchronization in the left motor and somatosensory areas, contralateral to the moving limb while, parietal and occipital regions, identifying association and visual areas, respectively, exhibited a similar activation level in the two hemispheres. Pertaining to the influence of the two experimental conditions it affected only movement's offset, and precisely we found that when matching movements are performed relying only on proprioceptive information, a lower cortical activity is entailed. This effect was strongest in the visual and association areas, while there was a minor effect in the hand motor and somatosensory areas.

Section: Modulation Of the Difference Between Vp And P Condition Bymentioning

confidence: 57%

Neural correlates of proprioceptive upper limb position matching

Marini

Zenzeri

Pippo

et al. 2019

“…The dorsal column medial lemniscus (DCML) pathway primarily carries proprioceptive information from peripheral receptors to the somatosensory cortex in the post-central gyrus. Studies in adult stroke survivors have found proprioceptive deficits to be associated with damage to parietal and temporal lobe regions [Findlater et al, 2016;Kenzie et al, 2015]. Studies in adult stroke survivors have found proprioceptive deficits to be associated with damage to parietal and temporal lobe regions [Findlater et al, 2016;Kenzie et al, 2015].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sensory tractography and robot‐quantified proprioception in hemiparetic children with perinatal stroke

Kuczynski

Carlson

Lebel

et al. 2017

Self Cite

Perinatal stroke causes most hemiparetic cerebral palsy, resulting in lifelong disability. We have demonstrated the ability of robots to quantify sensory dysfunction in hemiparetic children but the relationship between such deficits and sensory tract structural connectivity has not been explored. It was aimed to characterize the relationship between the dorsal column medial lemniscus (DCML) pathway connectivity and proprioceptive dysfunction in children with perinatal stroke. Twenty-nine participants (6-19 years old) with MRI-classified, unilateral perinatal ischemic stroke (14 arterial, 15 venous), and upper extremity deficits were recruited from a population-based cohort and compared with 21 healthy controls. Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) defined DCML tracts and five diffusion properties were quantified: fractional anisotropy (FA), mean, radial, and axial diffusivities (MD, RD, AD), and fiber count. A robotic exoskeleton (KINARM) tested upper limb proprioception in an augmented reality environment. Correlations between robotic measures and sensory tract diffusion parameters were evaluated. Lesioned hemisphere sensory tracts demonstrated lower FA and higher MD, RD, and AD compared with the non-dominant hemisphere of controls. Dominant (contralesional) hemisphere tracts were not different from controls. Both arterial and venous stroke groups demonstrated impairments in proprioception that correlated with lesioned hemisphere DCML tract diffusion properties. Sensory tract connectivity is altered in the lesioned hemisphere of hemiparetic children with perinatal stroke. A correlation between lesioned DCML tract diffusion properties and robotic proprioceptive measures suggests clinical relevance and a possible target for therapeutic intervention. Hum Brain Mapp 38:2424-2440, 2017. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

“…The first proprioceptive task, position matching (Figure a), assessed the individual's ability to sense the static position of their arm. This task has been described previously (Dukelow et al, ; Dukelow et al, ; Findlater et al, ). With vision of the arms occluded, the robot moved the passive (stroke affected) arm to one of nine spatial locations.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Compared to the motor system, the anatomy underlying proprioception is less well understood. Our group has recently examined cortical and subcortical lesion locations associated with poor proprioception in the subacute (Findlater et al, ; Kenzie et al, ) and chronic phases poststroke (Findlater et al, ) and have highlighted the importance of the primary somatosensory cortex, the supramarginal gyrus (SMG) and Heschl's gyrus (HG; also referred to as the transverse temporal gyrus) for proprioception. The relevance of the white matter tracts thought to underlie proprioception has yet to be investigated after stroke, despite numerous (>20) investigations into the relationship of the corticospinal tracts (CST) and motor impairment (see Kim & Winstein, for a review).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The SMG is a somatosensory association area (Iwamura, ; Pandya & Seltzer, ) that is important for awareness of hand position (Ben‐Shabat, Matyas, Pell, Brodtmann, & Carey, ; Brozzoli, Gentile, Petkova, & Ehrsson, ). HG is an association area which appears to be involved in proprioception (Findlater et al, , ) and is also involved in sensorimotor integration of listening and repeating (Bajada et al, ) as well as spatial localization of sound (Altmann, Bledowski, Wibral, & Kaiser, ; Baumgart, Gaschler‐Markefski, Woldorff, Heinze, & Scheich, ; Zatorre & Penhune, ). HG also has extensive connections with the parietal lobe (Jung, Cloutman, Binney, & Lambon Ralph, ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Proprioception and motor performance after stroke: An examination of diffusion properties in sensory and motor pathways

Findlater

Mazerolle

Pike

et al. 2019

Self Cite

Proprioceptive and motor impairments commonly occur after stroke. Relationships between corticospinal tract (CST) fractional anisotropy (FA) and motor recovery have been identified. However, the relationship between sensory tract microstructure and proprioceptive recovery remains unexplored. Using probabilistic tractography, we examined the relationship between diffusion metrics in three tracts known to contain proprioceptive information (a) dorsal‐column medial‐lemniscal (DCML), (b) postcentral gyrus to supramarginal gyrus (POCG‐SMG), (c) postcentral gyrus to Heschl's gyrus (POCG‐HG) and proprioception at 1 (n = 26) and 6 months (n = 19) poststroke. Proprioception was assessed using two robotic tasks. Motor performance was also assessed robotically and compared to CST diffusion metrics. At 1‐month poststroke, a nonsignificant relationship (r = −0.43, p = 0.05) was observed between DCML‐FA and proprioceptive impairment. A moderate relationship was identified between POCG‐SMG FA and POCG‐HG FA and proprioceptive impairment (r = −0.47, p = 0.001 and r = −0.51, p = 0.008, respectively). No relationships were significant at 6 months poststroke. Similar to previous studies, lower CST‐FA correlated with motor impairment at 1 month poststroke (r = −0.58, p = 0.002). While CST‐FA is considered a predictor of motor impairment, our findings suggest that the relationship between FA and tracts containing proprioceptive information is not as straightforward and highlights the importance of sensory association areas in proprioception.