Böttcher Adriana, Wilken Saskia, Raab Markus, Hoffmann Sven, Beste Christian
Cognitive Neurophysiology, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, TU Dresden, Dresden 01307, Germany.
Faculty of Medicine, University Neuropsychology Center, TU Dresden, Dresden 01307, Germany.
J Neurosci. 2025 Jul 9;45(28):e0427252025. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0427-25.2025.
Sensorimotor integration processes are crucial for daily-life activities, such as grasping objects or driving a car. Theta band activity (TBA) in distributed brain networks is likely essential to perform sensorimotor integration successfully. Directed communication in these brain networks is shaped by brain maturation during adolescence. This study investigates how age-related effects attributable to brain maturation influence directed communication in a theta-associated sensorimotor integration network. We conducted an EEG study with a continuous pursuit-tracking task performed by an adult group ( = 41) and an adolescent group ( = 30), each including both sexes. Both groups show elevated theta band activity during higher sensorimotor demands. Yet, the adult group outperformed the adolescent group, particularly during higher demands. Further analyses revealed that this is likely due to enhanced directed connectivity between frontal areas and the ventral processing stream in adults, which likely enables effective integration of visual and motor information. Adolescents rely on frontal TBA signaling surprise and prediction error, with no input from ventral stream areas. This might cause lower performance during higher demands. Across age, TBA appears to serve distinct functions during sensorimotor integration. Age-related processes transform the neural processes underlying complex sensorimotor integration.
感觉运动整合过程对于日常生活活动至关重要，例如抓取物体或驾驶汽车。分布式脑网络中的θ波段活动（TBA）可能是成功执行感觉运动整合所必需的。这些脑网络中的定向通信受到青春期大脑成熟的影响。本研究调查了与年龄相关的大脑成熟效应如何影响与θ相关的感觉运动整合网络中的定向通信。我们进行了一项脑电图研究，让一个成人组（n = 41）和一个青少年组（n = 30）执行连续追踪任务，每组均包括男女两性。在更高的感觉运动需求期间，两组的θ波段活动均升高。然而，成人组的表现优于青少年组，尤其是在更高需求期间。进一步分析表明，这可能是由于成人额叶区域与腹侧处理流之间的定向连接增强，这可能使视觉和运动信息得以有效整合。青少年依赖额叶TBA发出的意外和预测误差信号，而腹侧流区域没有输入。这可能导致在更高需求期间表现较低。在不同年龄阶段，TBA在感觉运动整合过程中似乎发挥着不同的功能。与年龄相关的过程改变了复杂感觉运动整合背后的神经过程。
