Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)-Universite Montpellier (UM) Laboratoire d'Informatique, de Robotique et de Microelectronique de Montpellier (LIRMM), Montpellier, France.
CNRS-National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) Joint Robotics Laboratory (JRL), Tsukuba, Japan.
Nat Commun. 2019 Sep 19;10(1):4287. doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-12205-6.
Performance anxiety can profoundly affect motor performance, even in experts such as professional athletes and musicians. Previously, the neural mechanisms underlying anxiety-induced performance deterioration have predominantly been investigated for individual one-shot actions. Sports and music, however, are characterized by action sequences, where many individual actions are assembled to develop a performance. Here, utilizing a novel differential sequential motor learning paradigm, we first show that performance at the junctions between pre-learnt action sequences is particularly prone to anxiety. Next, utilizing functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we reveal that performance deterioration at the junctions is parametrically correlated with activity in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex (dACC). Finally, we show that 1 Hz repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the dACC attenuates the performance deterioration at the junctions. These results demonstrate causality between dACC activity and impairment of sequential motor performance due to anxiety, and suggest new intervention techniques against the deterioration.
表现焦虑会深刻影响运动表现，即使是专业运动员和音乐家等专家也不例外。此前，焦虑引起的运动表现下降的神经机制主要是针对单次的个体动作进行研究的。然而，体育和音乐的特点是动作序列，其中许多个体动作被组合起来以发展表现。在这里，我们利用一种新颖的微分序列运动学习范式，首先表明在预学习的动作序列的连接处进行表现特别容易受到焦虑的影响。接下来，利用功能磁共振成像（fMRI），我们揭示了在连接处的表现恶化与背侧前扣带皮层（dACC）的活动呈参数相关。最后，我们表明 dACC 的 1Hz 重复经颅磁刺激（rTMS）可减轻连接处的表现恶化。这些结果证明了 dACC 活动与焦虑引起的序列运动表现受损之间存在因果关系，并提出了针对这种恶化的新的干预技术。
