Translational Model of Cortical Premotor-Motor Networks

Abstract

Deciphering the physiological patterns of motor network connectivity is a prerequisite to elucidate aberrant oscillatory transformations and elaborate robust translational models of movement disorders. In the proposed translational approach, we studied the connectivity between premotor (PMC) and primary motor cortex (M1) by recording high-density electroencephalography in humans and between caudal (CFA) and rostral forelimb (RFA) areas by recording multi-site extracellular activity in mice to obtain spectral power, functional and effective connectivity. We identified a significantly higher spectral power in β- and γ-bands in M1compared to PMC and similarly in mice CFA layers (L) 2/3 and 5 compared to RFA. We found a strong functional β-band connectivity between PMC and M1 in humans and between CFA L6 and RFA L5 in mice. We observed that in both humans and mice the direction of information flow mediated by β- and γ-band oscillations was predominantly from PMC toward M1 and from RFA to CFA, respectively. Combining spectral power, functional and effective connectivity, we revealed clear similarities between human PMC-M1 connections and mice RFA-CFA network. We propose that reciprocal connectivity of mice RFA-CFA circuitry presents a suitable model for analysis of motor control and physiological PMC-M1 functioning or pathological transformations within this network.

Translating Pathological Brain Activity Primers in Parkinson’s Disease Research

“…However, no electrophysiological investigations to describe particularities of the oscillatory activity were performed by the authors. However, a similar mouse model reported increased beta and gamma spectral power in the primary motor area with higher beta band connectivity between primary motor and premotor mouse brain area homologs, which correlates well with the human studies [ 117 ]. A secondary finding was beta- and gamma-mediated flow of information from premotor to motor mouse brain area homologs, also replicating the human data [ 117 ].…”