Increased Alpha Band Functional Connectivity Following the Quadrato Motor Training: A Longitudinal Study

Abstract

Quadrato Motor Training (QMT) is a new training paradigm, which was found to increase cognitive flexibility, creativity and spatial cognition. In addition, QMT was reported to enhance inter- and intra-hemispheric alpha coherence as well as Fractional Anisotropy (FA) in a number of white matter pathways including corpus callosum. Taken together, these results seem to suggest that electrophysiological and structural changes induced by QMT may be due to an enhanced interplay and communication of the different brain areas within and between the right and the left hemisphere. In order to test this hypothesis using the exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA), we estimated the current neural density and lagged linear connectivity (LLC) of the alpha band in the resting state electroencephalography (rsEEG) recorded with open (OE) and closed eyes (CE) at three different time points, following 6 and 12 weeks of daily QMT. Significant changes were observed for the functional connectivity. In particular, we found that limbic and fronto-temporal alpha connectivity in the OE condition increased after 6 weeks, while it enhanced at the CE condition in occipital network following 12-weeks of daily training. These findings seem to show that the QMT may have dissociable long-term effects on the functional connectivity depending on the different ways of recording rsEEG. OE recording pointed out a faster onset of Linear Lag Connectivity modulations that tend to decay as quickly, while CE recording showed sensible effect only after the complete 3-months training.

White Matter Microstructural Changes Following Quadrato Motor Training: A Longitudinal Study

“…The present study is part of a larger project aimed at investigating the longitudinal effect of QMT using different brain imaging techniques. For this reason, the experimental procedure also includes electrophysiological measures, which have been analyzed and discussed elsewhere ( Lasaponara et al, 2017 ).…”

Correlates of Silence: Enhanced Microstructural Changes in the Uncinate Fasciculus

“…The ethical committee of the Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Rome, Italy, approved the experimental phase I study entitled “Effect of Quadrato Motor Training on the brain of healthy volunteers” (MOTO-BRAIN, 09/14 PAR ComEt CBM). The present study was part of a larger project investigating longitudinal effects of QMT using various brain imaging techniques (results published in Lasaponara et al, 2017 ; Piervincenzi et al, 2017 ). Participants underwent magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and electroencephalography (EEG) at two time points: the day of recruitment ( t 0 ) and following 6 weeks of daily QMT practice ( t 1 ).…”

Cerebral Spectral Perturbation during Upper Limb Diagonal Movements

“…QMT is a sensorimotor training based on step-by-step, whole-body movement in vertical, horizontal, and diagonal directions. From the electrophysiological point of view, pre-and post-EEG recording showed acute and chronic increase of theta and alpha power and coherence over frontal, parietal, and temporal regions [9][10][11]. We hypothesized that it is especially the planning of diagonal movement which plays a crucial role in the establishment of such a modulation of theta and alpha band activity.…”

“…Alpha activity (8)(9)(10)(11)(12) is considered a fundamental brain rhythm produced in the occipital cortex which reflects cortical inactivity during relaxed wakefulness with closed eyes and reduced sensory and motor processing [21,22]. Alpha desynchronization has been observed during a task that requires the deployment of attention toward specific targets or locations in space, suggesting that alpha could play an important role in the management of attentional resources and sensory perception [23][24][25][26].…”

“…These ROIs were selected on the base of a previous experiment [5] in which an increase in alpha and beta activity was found along the frontoparietal axis after the performance of diagonal movements. We extracted time-frequency courses for theta (4-7 Hz), alpha (8)(9)(10)(11)(12), and beta (13-30 Hz) frequency bands.…”