Lavigne Stéphanie K, Burdette Jonathan H, Bahrami Mohsen, Laurienti Paul J, Lyday Robert G, Thaut Michael H
Music and Health Science Research Collaboratory, Faculty of Music, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Collaborative Program in Neuroscience, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Brain Behav. 2025 Aug;15(8):e70695. doi: 10.1002/brb3.70695.
Auditory-motor synchronization (AMS) embedded in Rhythmic Auditory Stimulation (RAS) is a validated method to improve gait, upper limb function, and motor speech in people with neurologic disorders like Parkinson's disease (PD). Predictable auditory cues optimize spatial movement patterns, and research has suggested that AMS reduces the brain's reliance on dopaminergic (DA) response in the ventral striatum. To gain a mechanistic understanding of the positive clinical outcomes related to AMS, this pilot study investigates the effects of AMS on the basal ganglia network (BGN) using brain network science methods.
Fourteen healthy adults (aged 22-37, seven females) completed two fMRI finger tapping tasks, a self-paced continuation (self) task and an auditory-motor synchronized (sync) task, both performed at 1 Hz. Using a modularity analysis of brain network data, we assessed the spatial consistency of the BGN. Additionally, we used a mixed-effects regression framework to test the hypotheses that changes in global and local efficiency are associated with the experimental tasks.
The spatial consistency of the BGN community was significantly greater in the sync task compared to the self task. Then, the regression model showed a significant change in the BGN's efficiency in the sync task over the self task. Specifically, the probability and the strength of connections between highly efficient nodes were significantly greater, indicating a more synchronized BGN.
AMS significantly changed the network topology of the BGN compared to no AMS. Specifically, the BGN became more functionally synchronized with AMS due to, mainly, greater network efficiency. These findings contribute to the growing mechanistic knowledge of how the BGN functional connections change with AMS and why AMS is a powerful tool to treat neurologic disorders such as PD.
节奏性听觉刺激（RAS）中所包含的听觉 - 运动同步（AMS）是一种经过验证的方法，可改善患有帕金森病（PD）等神经系统疾病患者的步态、上肢功能和运动性言语。可预测的听觉线索优化空间运动模式，并且研究表明，AMS可降低大脑对腹侧纹状体中多巴胺能（DA）反应的依赖。为了从机制上理解与AMS相关的积极临床结果，这项前瞻性研究使用脑网络科学方法研究了AMS对基底神经节网络（BGN）的影响。
14名健康成年人（年龄在22 - 37岁之间，7名女性）完成了两项功能磁共振成像手指敲击任务，一项是自定节奏持续（自我）任务，另一项是听觉 - 运动同步（同步）任务，两者均以1Hz的频率进行。通过对脑网络数据进行模块化分析，我们评估了BGN的空间一致性。此外，我们使用混合效应回归框架来检验关于全局和局部效率变化与实验任务相关的假设。
与自我任务相比，同步任务中BGN群落的空间一致性显著更高。然后，回归模型显示同步任务中BGN的效率相对于自我任务有显著变化。具体而言，高效节点之间连接的概率和强度显著更高，表明BGN更加同步。
与无AMS相比，AMS显著改变了BGN的网络拓扑结构。具体而言，由于网络效率更高，BGN在AMS作用下功能上变得更加同步。这些发现有助于增加关于BGN功能连接如何随AMS变化以及为什么AMS是治疗诸如PD等神经系统疾病的有力工具的机制性知识。
