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Cerebral circuits involved in preferential hand posture representation for action.

V Piombino1, M D'Alonzo2, F Castro3

  • 1Neurophysiology and Neuroengineering of Human-Technology Interaction Research Unit, Università Campus Bio-Medico di Roma, Rome, Italy; Department of Psychology and Life Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, Charles University, Prague, Czechia.

Clinical Neurophysiology : Official Journal of the International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology
|June 4, 2025
PubMed
Summary

The brain preferentially represents the thumb-down/fingers-up hand posture, enhancing sensorimotor performance. This advantage stems from a neural circuit involving the premotor cortex (PM) projecting to the primary motor cortex (M1).

Keywords:
Body representationBrain circuitsHand posturedirectional TMS

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Motor Control
  • Human Sensorimotor Performance

Background:

  • The brain preferentially represents the thumb-down/fingers-up hand posture.
  • This supra-modal representation enhances sensorimotor performances.
  • The underlying cortical circuit remains to be identified.

Purpose of the Study:

  • Identify the specific cortical circuit responsible for the sensorimotor advantage of the thumb-down/fingers-up hand posture.
  • Investigate the role of corticospinal and cortico-cortical connections in this postural advantage.
  • Explore inhibitory and facilitatory mechanisms within the primary motor cortex (M1).

Main Methods:

  • Utilized transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) with varying coil orientations (antero-posterior, latero-medial, postero-anterior) to probe different cortical circuits.
  • Applied pair-pulse TMS protocols to assess intracortical inhibition and facilitation.
  • Tested corticospinal and cortico-cortical connections in standard (thumb-down/fingers-up) and inverse hand postures.

Main Results:

  • Antero-posterior TMS, activating premotor cortex (PM) to M1 connections, showed a significant difference in corticospinal excitability (p=0.003) and MEPs (p<0.003) between postures.
  • Postero-anterior TMS, favoring local cortical connections, also revealed a significant difference (p=0.042).
  • Latero-medial stimulation, targeting direct corticospinal connections, did not show postural preference; intracortical mechanisms were unaffected.

Conclusions:

  • The postural advantage is linked to a neural circuit involving PM cortex projecting to M1.
  • This circuit is activated by antero-posterior and postero-anterior TMS.
  • Corticospinal evoked activity provides insights into the neural basis of body representation and favored postures.