Posterior parietal cortex role in a sensorimotor task performance

Abstract

-This study aimed to elucidate electrophysiological and cortical mechanisms involved in anticipatory actions when individuals had to catch balls in free drop; specifically through quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG) alpha absolute power changes. The sample was composed for 23 health subjects, both sexes, with ages varying between 25 and 40 years, absence of mental and physical illness, right handed and don't make use of any psychoactive or psychotropic substance at the time of the study. The experiment consisted of a task of catching balls in free drop. The three-way ANOVA analysis demonstrated an interaction between moment and position factors in left parietal posterior cortex (PPC) (p=0.001). Through the experimental task employed, this area demonstrated a differentiated activity involving expectation, planning and preparedness in the ball's drop task.KEy words: absolute power, catch, qEEG, sensorimotor integration. Papel do córtex parietal posterior na realização de uma tarefa sensório-motoraResumo -o estudo tentou elucidar mecanismos eletrofisiológicos e corticais envolvidos em ações antecipatórias quando os sujeitos testados tiveram que apreender bolas em queda livre; especificamente através de mudanças na potência absoluta na banda alfa da eletrencefalografia quantitativa (EEGq). A amostra foi composta por 23 sujeitos sadios, ambos os sexos, idade entre variando entre 25 e 40 anos, sem comprometimento físico e mental, destros, e não fazer uso de nenhuma substância psicoativa ou psicotrópicos até o momento do estudo. o experimento consistiu de uma tarefa de apreensão de bolas em queda livre. A análise three-way ANOVA demonstrou uma interação entre os fatores momento e posição no córtex parietal posterior (CPP) esquerdo (p=0,001). Através da tarefa experimental empregada, esta área demonstrou uma atividade diferenciada envolvendo expectativa, planejamento e prontidão na tarefa de queda de bolas.PAlAvrAs-ChAvE: potência absoluta, apreender, EEGq, integração sensório-motora. The posterior parietal cortex (PPC) plays a crucial role in relation to motor planning based on sensory information. human functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMrI) experiments and electrophysiological recordings in nonhuman primates have shown that the PPC is neither sensory nor motor purely, but it is an area that encodes cognitive functions related to action 1,2 . The presence of sensory and motor specific representations together with high-level cognitive signals suggests that the PPC plays an important role for decision making related to action 2 .such representations are elementary components in the preparation and adjustment of a motor act and they take part in the integration among different and specialized centers in the final movement production 3 . This process occurs through sensorimotor integration, when sensory information is integrated by central nervous system to attend to motor programs.Catching an object is a complex movement which involves not only programming but also effective motor coordination. suc...

Parietal dysfunction in developmental coordination disorder: a functional MRI study

“…The neuropsychological assessment of agraphic patients after a haemorrhage in the left superior parietal lobule revealed that this area plays an important role in the execution of writing [13]. An electrophysiological experiment showed that the left PPC was specifically activated in a ball-catching task [14].…”

Gamma absolute power reveals activation of motor areas after hand immobilization

“…These results pointed to a relevant activation at central regions due its relation with sensorimotor areas. 6,11,38 Each hemisphere has specifics functions and contributes to motor control differently. The right hemisphere is characterized by use attention and sensory feedback to create spatial references, while the left hemisphere plays a role on movement planning and execution.…”

Gamma band oscillations in parietooccipital areas during performance of a sensorimotor integration task: a qEEG coherence study

“…In our task, subjects had to attend to an object (i.e., the ball) while prepared for catching it, requiring a visual guidance for hand movements which need a set of somatosensory inputs to control the movements, more specifically, the manipulation of the ball that involves the synchronous coordination of finger movements [14][15][16] . Besides, it is necessary adjusting the hand to the shape and to the fall line of the ball (i.e., posture and position of the hand related to the ball).…”

“…Such behavior is related to the activation and recruitment of cortical regions which participates in the sensorimotor integration process that gathers information coming from the environment and the performed motor task in order to prepare motor acts and to enhance the execution of goal-directed tasks [14][15][16] , e.g., catching an object. Thus, the cortical areas are recruited to promote a self-organization (i.e., the functional reorganization of circuits) of neural networks for the constitution of a functional group (binding problems) 17 to improve the coordination and the motor control due to the instability induced by the task [14][15][16] . Based on this assumption, our experiment investigated the coherence of the quantitative electroencephalogram (qEEG) in parietal and occipital regions in a catching task when participants have to catch a ball in free fall.…”

“…The experiment was approved by the Ethics Committee of Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IPUB/UFRJ). This experimental paradigm has been already used in other experiment [14][15][16] .…”