Authors: Toshiaki Wasaka Tetsuo Kida Ryusuke Kakigi
Publish Date: 2012/03/30
Volume: 219, Issue: 2, Pages: 227-233
Abstract
This study investigated the modulation of somatosensory evoked potentials SEPs during precisely controlled force generation and force relaxation in a visuomotor tracking task Subjects were instructed to track a target line with a line that represented their own force generated by grip movement with the right hand as accurately as possible during concurrent electrical stimulation The target force line moved up continuously from 0 to 20 of maximal voluntary contraction MVC the force generation phase FG phase and moved down from 20 to 0 of MVC the force relaxation phase FR phase in 7 s at a constant velocity We separately obtained SEPs following electrical stimulation of the median nerve at the wrist in each phase During the visuomotor tracking task compared with the stationary condition the N30 at Fz and P27 at C3′ showed a significant reduction in amplitude in the FG and FR phases In addition the N30 and P27 were significantly smaller in amplitude in the FG than FR phase Although the average amount of force exertion was the same in the FG and FR phases the modulation of SEP amplitude was larger in the FG phase These results indicated that sensorimotor integration in the somatosensory area was dependent on the context of movement exertionWe thank Mr Y Takeshima for help in devising constructing and maintaining the equipment used in this study This study is the result of “Development of biomarker candidates for social behavior” carried out under the Strategic Research Program for Brain Sciences by the Ministry of Education Culture Sports Science and Technology of Japan This study was supported by a GrantinAid for Young Scientists B to TW 23700689
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