Effects of repetitive practice of motor tasks on somatosensory gating

Akaiwa, Mayu; Matsuda, Yuya; Saito, Hidekazu; Shibata, Eriko; Sasaki, Takeshi; Sugawara, Kazuhiro

doi:10.3389/fnhum.2023.1131986

Cited by 1 publication

(1 citation statement)

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“…During these trials, the participants were standing on the surface (i.e., biomimetic or smooth, see below for their description) on which they were standing at the start of their experimental session (see below). Note that this training session, which lasted ~3 min, unlikely altered the sensory gating [see ( 35 ), for evidence of unaltered SEP gating during repetitive practice]. The analyses showed that, for both types of surfaces, the amplitude of the shear forces exerted by participants on the platform in the active task was fairly similar to those recorded in the passive task (see Figure 2A ).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 88%

Cortical facilitation of tactile afferents during the preparation of a body weight transfer when standing on a biomimetic surface

Sutter,

Moinon,

Felicetti

et al. 2023

Front. Neurol.

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Self-generated movement shapes tactile perception, but few studies have investigated the brain mechanisms involved in the processing of the mechanical signals related to the static and transient skin deformations generated by forces and pressures exerted between the foot skin and the standing surface. We recently found that standing on a biomimetic surface (i.e., inspired by the characteristics of mechanoreceptors and skin dermatoglyphics), that magnified skin–surface interaction, increased the sensory flow to the somatosensory cortex and improved balance control compared to standing on control (e.g., smooth) surfaces. In this study, we tested whether the well-known sensory suppression that occurs during movements is alleviated when the tactile afferent signal becomes relevant with the use of a biomimetic surface. Eyes-closed participants (n = 25) self-stimulated their foot cutaneous receptors by shifting their body weight toward one of their legs while standing on either a biomimetic or a control (smooth) surface. In a control task, similar forces were exerted on the surfaces (i.e., similar skin–surface interaction) by passive translations of the surfaces. Sensory gating was assessed by measuring the amplitude of the somatosensory-evoked potential over the vertex (SEP, recorded by EEG). Significantly larger and shorter SEPs were found when participants stood on the biomimetic surface. This was observed whether the forces exerted on the surface were self-generated or passively generated. Contrary to our prediction, we found that the sensory attenuation related to the self-generated movement did not significantly differ between the biomimetic and control surfaces. However, we observed an increase in gamma activity (30–50 Hz) over centroparietal regions during the preparation phase of the weight shift only when participants stood on the biomimetic surface. This result might suggest that gamma-band oscillations play an important functional role in processing behaviorally relevant stimuli during the early stages of body weight transfer.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 88%