EEG correlates of sensorimotor processing: independent components involved in sensory and motor processing

Abstract

Sensorimotor processing is a critical function of the human brain with multiple cortical areas specialised for sensory recognition or motor execution. Although there has been considerable research into sensorimotor control in humans, the steps between sensory recognition and motor execution are not fully understood. To provide insight into brain areas responsible for sensorimotor computation, we used complex categorization-response tasks (variations of a Stroop task requiring recognition, decision-making, and motor responses) to test the hypothesis that some functional modules are participating in both sensory as well as motor processing. We operationalize functional modules as independent components (ICs) yielded by an independent component analysis (ICA) of EEG data and measured event-related responses by means of inter-trial coherence (ITC). Our results consistently found ICs with event-related ITC responses related to both sensory stimulation and motor response onsets (on average 5.8 ICs per session). These findings reveal EEG correlates of tightly coupled sensorimotor processing in the human brain, and support frameworks like embodied cognition, common coding, and sensorimotor contingency that do not sequentially separate sensory and motor brain processes.

Dynamics of task-related electrophysiological networks: a benchmarking study

“…These regions mainly include nodes from central gyrus in the case of self-paced task, and central gyrus in the case of HCP task. The implicated networks are strongly coherent with the task (Melnik et al, 2017;Yousry, 1997) since it requires both movement (through button press or hand movement) and tactile response (as the subject will feel the button or his fingers tape). The effect of right-handedness of all participants of self-paced dataset is also revealed by the presence of motor network, where only sensorimotor regions from the right cortex are implicated ('MotR').…”

Reaction Time Improvements by Neural Bistability

“…For example, experienced ball athletes do not follow the ball’s trajectory, but rather observe the initial movement of the ball, remember it, and, with a rapid eye saccade, go to a projected final position of the ball’s path. Memory effects are perceivable via EEG patterns [17,18], which are emanating from oscillating neural fields. Figure 1 depicts how to move a sensorimotor FHN 1 ability to a new field of improved ability FHN 2.…”

The World as an External Memory: The Price of Saccades in a Sensorimotor Task

“…Limited information retained from prior saccades is determined by what is currently relevant for the sensorimotor task ( Ballard et al, 1997 ). A shared representational domain of certain products of perception and certain antecedents of action in the human brain ( Melnik et al, 2017 ) can be the reason for this limitation. Effectively, humans trade the effort of memorization with the effort of active sampling of visual information ( Inamdar and Pomplun, 2003 ; Droll and Hayhoe, 2007 ; Hardiess et al, 2008 ).…”