Mu rhythm and corticospinal excitability capture two different frames of motor resonance: A TMS–EEG co-registration study

Spaccasassi, Chiara; Zanon, Marco; Borgomaneri, Sara; Avenanti, Alessio

doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2022.04.019

Cited by 9 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 125 publications

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“…Previous studies demonstrated a MEP amplitude increase during observation as target-directed actions (e.g., grasping or pointing) (Gangitano et al, 2001;Spaccasassi et al, 2022) as well as intransitive movements (Borroni et al, 2005;Lagravinese et al, 2017). However, in our study, where we used stimuli with simple intransitive movements, we didn't find any difference in MEPs amplitude between rest condition and both AO conditions.…”

Section: Absence Of Motor Evoked Potentials Increasecontrasting

confidence: 88%

“…We find it to be the limitation of our study and suggest future studies to consider using TMS-EEG co-registration. Although, TMS-EEG co-registration study by Spaccasassi et al (2022) found no intra-subject correlation between these indices. Following, they suggested that ERD and MEPs reflect distinct neural mechanisms of motor resonance (Spaccasassi et al, 2022).…”

Section: Correlation Between Event-related Desynchronization Motor Ev...mentioning

confidence: 87%

“…Specifically, TMS explores the activity of the primary motor cortex, which may not always be activated by MNs, and may not be involved in the analysis of simple actions unlike visual and somatosensory cortices. Alternatively, it is possible that the peak of desynchronization and an increase in excitability occur at different phases of the movement (Gangitano et al, 2001;Grosprêtre et al, 2016;Spaccasassi et al, 2022). Importantly, it was shown that ERD evolution is also phase-dependent and sensorimotor excitability dynamics can be reflected in MEPs amplitude and ERD value with different latency (Lapenta et al, 2018).…”

Section: Correlation Between Event-related Desynchronization Motor Ev...mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mu-desynchronization, N400 and corticospinal excitability during observation of natural and anatomically unnatural finger movements

Syrov

Bredikhin

Yakovlev

et al. 2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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The action observation networks (AON) (or the mirror neuron system) are the neural underpinnings of visuomotor integration and play an important role in motor control. Besides, one of the main functions of the human mirror neuron system is recognition of observed actions and the prediction of its outcome through the comparison with the internal mental motor representation. Previous studies focused on the human mirror neurons (MNs) activation during object-oriented movements observation, therefore intransitive movements observation effects on MNs activity remains relatively little-studied. Moreover, the dependence of MNs activation on the biomechanical characteristics of observed movement and their biological plausibility remained highly underexplored. In this study we proposed that naturalness of observed intransitive movement can modulate the MNs activity. Event-related desynchronization (ERD) of sensorimotor electroencephalography (EEG) rhythms, N400 event-related potentials (ERPs) component and corticospinal excitability were investigated in twenty healthy volunteers during observation of simple non-transitive finger flexion that might be either biomechanically natural or unnatural when finger wriggled out toward the dorsal side of palm. We showed that both natural and unnatural movements caused mu/beta-desynchronization, which gradually increased during the flexion phase and returned to baseline while observation of extension. Desynchronization of the mu-rhythm was significantly higher during observation of the natural movements. At the same time, beta-rhythm was not found to be sensitive to the action naturalness. Also, observation of unnatural movements caused an increased amplitude of the N400 component registered in the centro-parietal regions. We suggest that the sensitivity of N400 to intransitive action observation with no explicit semantic context might imply the broader role of N400 sources within AON. Surprisingly, no changes in corticospinal excitability were found. This lack of excitability modulation by action observation could be related with dependence of the M1 activity on the observed movement phase.

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Section: Absence Of Motor Evoked Potentials Increasecontrasting

confidence: 88%

Section: Correlation Between Event-related Desynchronization Motor Ev...mentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Correlation Between Event-related Desynchronization Motor Ev...mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Mu-desynchronization, N400 and corticospinal excitability during observation of natural and anatomically unnatural finger movements

Syrov

Bredikhin

Yakovlev

et al. 2022

Front. Hum. Neurosci.

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show abstract

“…To assess whether a relationship existed between skin conductance and EEG response, in sources that discriminated between CS+ and CS−, we fitted of a series of linear mixed‐effect models on the single‐trial data (Spaccasassi et al, 2022), using MATLAB fitlme function. The models included z‐scored SCR as the dependent variable, CS type (CS−: CS = 0, CS+: CS = 1), phase, midcingulate theta power, ventral mPFC theta power, motor cortex alpha power, and somatosensory cortex alpha power as dependent variables.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Theta and alpha power track the acquisition and reversal of threat predictions and correlate with skin conductance response

et al. 2023

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The ability to flexibly adjust one's threat predictions to meet the current environmental contingencies is crucial to survival. Nevertheless, its neural oscillatory correlates remain elusive in humans. Here, we tested whether changes in theta and alpha brain oscillations mark the updating of threat predictions and correlate with response of the peripheral nervous system. To this end, electroencephalogram and electrodermal activity were recorded in a group of healthy adults, who completed a Pavlovian threat conditioning task that included an acquisition and a reversal phase. Both theta and alpha power discriminated between threat and safety, with each frequency band showing unique patterns of modulations during acquisition and reversal. While changes in midcingulate theta power may learn the timing of an upcoming danger, alpha power may reflect the preparation of the somato‐motor system. Additionally, ventromedial prefrontal cortex theta may play a role in the inhibition of previously acquired threat responses, when they are no longer appropriate. Finally, theta and alpha power correlated with skin conductance response, establishing a direct relationship between activation of the central and peripheral nervous systems. Taken together these results highlight the existence of multiple oscillatory systems that flexibly regulate their activity for the successful expression of threat responses in an ever‐changing environment.

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“…These results suggest that similar processes are implemented to make causal attributions of sensory outcomes to our own actions and to others’ actions. The link between our own actions and others’ actions recalls the “motor resonance” mechanism, which refers to the activation of motor neurons when watching actions performed by other people ( Avenanti et al, 2007 ; Uithol et al, 2011 ; Spaccasassi et al, 2022 ), supporting action understanding and imitation ( di Pellegrino et al, 1992 ; Rizzolatti et al, 2006 ).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sense of agency predicts severity of moral judgments

Spaccasassi

Cenka²,

Petkovic³

et al. 2023

Front. Psychol.

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Sense of Agency (SoA) refers to the awareness of being the agent of our own actions. A key feature of SoA relies on the perceived temporal compression between our own actions and their sensory consequences, a phenomenon known as “Intentional Binding.” Prior studies have linked SoA to the sense of responsibility for our own actions. However, it is unclear whether SoA predicts the way we judge the actions of others – including judgments of morally wrong actions like harming others. To address this issue, we ran an on-line pilot experiment where participants underwent two different tasks designed to tap into SoA and moral cognition. SoA was measured using the Intentional Binding task which allowed us to obtain both implicit (Intentional Binding) and explicit (Agency Rating) measures of SoA. Moral cognition was assessed by asking the same participants to evaluate videoclips where an agent could deliberately or inadvertently cause suffering to a victim (Intentional vs. Accidental Harm) compared with Neutral scenarios. Results showed a significant relation between both implicit and explicit measures of SoA and moral evaluation of the Accidental Harm scenarios, with stronger SoA predicting stricter moral judgments. These findings suggest that our capacity to feel in control of our actions predicts the way we judge others’ actions, with stronger feelings of responsibility over our own actions predicting the severity of our moral evaluations of other actions. This was particularly true in ambiguous scenarios characterized by an incongruency between an apparently innocent intention and a negative action outcome.

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Mu rhythm and corticospinal excitability capture two different frames of motor resonance: A TMS–EEG co-registration study

Cited by 9 publications

References 125 publications

Mu-desynchronization, N400 and corticospinal excitability during observation of natural and anatomically unnatural finger movements

Mu-desynchronization, N400 and corticospinal excitability during observation of natural and anatomically unnatural finger movements

Theta and alpha power track the acquisition and reversal of threat predictions and correlate with skin conductance response

Sense of agency predicts severity of moral judgments

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