Department of Occupational Therapy, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA; Kennedy Krieger Institute, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA.
Faculty of Music, Music and Health Science Research Center, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5S 1A1.
Neuropsychologia. 2018 Aug;117:102-112. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2018.05.017. Epub 2018 May 22.
Neurophysiological research has shown that auditory and motor systems interact during movement to rhythmic auditory stimuli through a process called entrainment. This study explores the neural oscillations underlying auditory-motor entrainment using electroencephalography. Forty young adults were randomly assigned to one of two control conditions, an auditory-only condition or a motor-only condition, prior to a rhythmic auditory-motor synchronization condition (referred to as combined condition). Participants assigned to the auditory-only condition auditory-first group) listened to 400 trials of auditory stimuli presented every 800 ms, while those in the motor-only condition (motor-first group) were asked to tap rhythmically every 800 ms without any external stimuli. Following their control condition, all participants completed an auditory-motor combined condition that required tapping along with auditory stimuli every 800 ms. As expected, the neural processes for the combined condition for each group were different compared to their respective control condition. Time-frequency analysis of total power at an electrode site on the left central scalp (C3) indicated that the neural oscillations elicited by auditory stimuli, especially in the beta and gamma range, drove the auditory-motor entrainment. For the combined condition, the auditory-first group had significantly lower evoked power for a region of interest representing sensorimotor processing (4-20 Hz) and less total power in a region associated with anticipation and predictive timing (13-16 Hz) than the motor-first group. Thus, the auditory-only condition served as a priming facilitator of the neural processes in the combined condition, more so than the motor-only condition. Results suggest that even brief periods of rhythmic training of the auditory system leads to neural efficiency facilitating the motor system during the process of entrainment. These findings have implications for interventions using rhythmic auditory stimulation.
神经生理学研究表明，听觉和运动系统在运动过程中通过称为节律同步的过程相互作用，以响应节奏性听觉刺激。本研究使用脑电图探索听觉-运动同步的神经振荡基础。40 名年轻成年人在进入节奏性听觉-运动同步条件（称为联合条件）之前，被随机分配到两种对照条件之一，即听觉条件或运动条件。被分配到听觉条件（听觉第一组）的参与者首先聆听 400 次听觉刺激，每个刺激间隔 800ms，而被分配到运动条件（运动第一组）的参与者则被要求以 800ms 的间隔进行有节奏的敲击，而没有任何外部刺激。在完成对照条件后，所有参与者都完成了听觉-运动联合条件，要求他们在每个 800ms 的间隔内随着听觉刺激进行敲击。正如预期的那样，与各自的对照条件相比，每个组的联合条件的神经过程都不同。在左中央头皮（C3）的一个电极位置的总功率时频分析表明，听觉刺激引起的神经振荡，特别是在β和γ范围内，驱动了听觉-运动同步。对于联合条件，听觉第一组在代表感觉运动处理的感兴趣区域（4-20Hz）的诱发功率明显较低，并且在与预期和预测定时相关的区域（13-16Hz）的总功率也较低，而运动第一组则没有。因此，听觉条件作为联合条件下神经过程的启动促进者，比运动条件更有效。结果表明，即使是短暂的听觉系统节律训练也会导致神经效率提高，从而在同步过程中促进运动系统。这些发现对使用节律性听觉刺激的干预措施具有意义。
