Balance perturbation-evoked cortical N1 responses are larger when stepping and not influenced by motor planning

The cortical N1 response to balance perturbation is observed in electroencephalography recordings simultaneous to automatic balance-correcting muscle activity. We recently observed larger cortical N1s in individuals who had greater difficulty resisting compensatory steps, suggesting the N1 may be influenced by stepping or changes in response strategy. Here, we test whether the cortical N1 response is influenced by stepping (planned steps versus feet-in-place) or prior planning (planned vs. unplanned steps). We hypothesized that prior planning of a step would reduce the amplitude of the cortical N1 response to balance perturbations. In 19 healthy young adults (ages 19-38; 8 men and 11 women), we measured the cortical N1 amplitude evoked by 48 backward translational support-surface perturbations of unpredictable timing and amplitude in a single experimental session. Participants were asked to plan a stepping reaction on half of perturbations, but to resist stepping otherwise. Perturbations included an easy (8 cm, 16 cm/s) perturbation that was identical across participants and did not naturally elicit compensatory steps, and a height-adjusted difficult (18-22 cm, 38-42 cm/s) perturbation that frequently elicited compensatory steps despite instructions to resist stepping. In contrast to our hypothesis, cortical N1 response amplitudes did not differ between planned and unplanned stepping reactions, but cortical responses were 11% larger with the execution of planned compensatory steps compared with nonstepping responses to difficult perturbations. These results suggest a possible role for the cortical N1 in the execution of compensatory steps for balance recovery, and this role is not influenced by whether the compensatory step was planned before the perturbation.NEW & NOTEWORTHY The cortical N1 response to balance perturbation is larger when executing compensatory steps, suggesting a relationship between the cortical N1 and subsequent motor behavior. Additionally, the cortical N1 response is not impacted by prior planning of the stepping reaction, suggesting that predictability of the motor outcome does not impact the N1 in the same way as predictability of the perturbation stimulus.