Blum Julia, Lutz Kai, Jäncke Lutz
Department of Neuropsychology, Institute for Psychology, University of Zurich, Binzmühlestrasse 14/25, 8050 Zurich, Switzerland.
Exp Brain Res. 2007 Sep;182(1):59-69. doi: 10.1007/s00221-007-0963-7. Epub 2007 May 8.
The aim of the present study was to assess changes in EEG coherence and phase locking between fronto-parietal areas, including the frontal and parietal motor areas, during early audio- and visuo-motor learning of continuous tracking movements. Subjects learned to turn a steering-wheel according to a given trajectory in order to minimise the discrepancy between a changing foreground stimulus (controllable by the subjects) and a constant background stimulus (uncontrollable) for both the auditory and the visual modality. In the auditory condition, we uncovered a learning-related increase in inter-hemispheric phase locking between inferior parietal regions, suggesting that coupling between areas involved in audiomotor integration is augmented during early learning stages. Intra-hemispheric phase locking between motor and superior parietal areas increased in the left hemisphere as learning progressed, indicative of integrative processes of spatial information and movement execution. Further tests show a significant correlation of intra-hemispheric phase locking between the motor and the parietal area bilaterally and movement performance in the visual condition. These results suggest that the motor-parietal network is operative in the auditory and in the visual condition. This study confirms that a complex fronto-parietal network subserves learning of a new movement that requires sensorimotor transformation and demonstrates the importance of interregional coupling as a neural correlate for successful acquisition and implementation of externally guided behaviour.
本研究的目的是评估在连续跟踪运动的早期听觉和视觉运动学习过程中，额顶叶区域（包括额叶和顶叶运动区）之间脑电图相干性和锁相的变化。受试者学习根据给定轨迹转动方向盘，以最小化在听觉和视觉模式下不断变化的前景刺激（受试者可控制）与恒定背景刺激（不可控制）之间的差异。在听觉条件下，我们发现顶叶下部区域半球间锁相增加与学习有关，这表明在早期学习阶段，参与听觉运动整合的区域之间的耦合增强。随着学习的进行，左半球运动区和顶叶上部区域之间的半球内锁相增加，这表明空间信息和运动执行的整合过程。进一步的测试表明，在视觉条件下，双侧运动区和顶叶区域之间的半球内锁相与运动表现存在显著相关性。这些结果表明，运动-顶叶网络在听觉和视觉条件下起作用。本研究证实，一个复杂的额顶叶网络有助于学习需要感觉运动转换的新运动，并证明区域间耦合作为成功获取和实施外部引导行为的神经关联的重要性。
