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Effects of attention and precision of exerted force on beta range EEG-EMG synchronization during a maintained motor
Rumyana Kristeva-Feige1, Christoph Fritsch, Jens Timmer
1Neurological Clinic, Albert-Ludwigs-University, Breisacherstrasse 64, 79106 Freiburg, Germany. kristeva@nz11.ukl.uni-freiburg.de
Objective:
The present study was aimed at investigating the effect of attention and precision level of exerted force on beta range EEG-EMG synchronization.
Methods:
We simultaneously recorded cortical electrical activity (EEG) in a bipolar manner from the contralateral sensorimotor areas and surface electromyographic (EMG) activity from the flexor digitorum superficialis muscle in 10 healthy subjects during a maintained motor contraction task at 8% of the maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) force level. The coherence between oscillatory processes in the EEG and EMG was calculated. Three different conditions were investigated: (i) performing the task with high precision (HP); (ii) performing the task with high precision and simultaneously performing a mental arithmetic task (HPAT), i.e. attention was divided between the motor task and the mental arithmetic task; and (iii) performing the task with low precision (LP).
Results:
We have found that the amount of beta range EEG-EMG synchronization decreases below the 95% confidence level when attention is divided between the motor task and the mental arithmetic task. The results also show that the frequency of beta range synchronization is higher with a higher level of precision but still lies within the beta frequency range (15-30 Hz).
Conclusions:
The data indicate that beta range synchronization represents a state of the cortico-muscular network when attention is directed towards the motor task. The frequency of synchronization of this network is associated with, and possibly encodes, precision in force production.