Cortical oscillations and interareal synchronization as a preparatory activity for postural response

• Published in: The European journal of neuroscience Vol. 57; no. 9; pp. 1516 - 1528
• Main Authors: Fujio, Kimiya, Obata, Hiroki, Takeda, Kenta, Kawashima, Noritaka
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: France Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.05.2023
• Subjects: Central nervous system; Cortical Synchronization - physiology; EEG; Electroencephalography; Electromyography; event‐related desynchronization; Excitability; Humans; Information processing; Oscillations; phase synchrony; phase‐amplitude coupling; postural response; Posture; Predictions; Pyramidal tracts; Sensorimotor system; Sensory integration; Synchronization; electroencephalography; phase synchrony; phase-amplitude coupling; event-related desynchronization; postural response
• DOI: 10.1111/ejn.15956
• ISSN: 0953-816X

Neural mechanisms of human standing are expected to be elucidated for preventing fallings. Postural response evoked by sudden external perturbation originates from various areas in the central nervous system. Recent studies have revealed that the corticospinal pathway is one of the key nodes for an appropriate postural response. The corticospinal pathway that mediates the early part of the electromyographic response is modulated with prediction before a perturbation occurs. Temporal prediction explicitly exhibiting an onset timing contributes to enhancing corticospinal excitability. However, how the cortical activities in the sensorimotor area with temporal prediction are processed before the corticospinal pathway enhancement remains unclear. In this study, using electroencephalography, we investigated how temporal prediction affects both neural oscillations and synchronization between sensorimotor and distal areas. Our results revealed that desynchronization of cortical oscillation at α‐ and β‐bands was observed in the sensorimotor and parietooccipital areas (Cz, CPz, Pz and POz), and those are nested in the phase at θ‐band frequency. Furthermore, a reduction in the interareal phase synchrony in the α‐band was induced after the timing cue for the perturbation onset. The phase synchrony at the low frequency can relay the temporal prediction among the distant areas and initiate the modulation of the local cortical activities. Such modulations contribute to the preparation for sensory processing and motor execution that are necessary for optimal responses. Cortical involvement is fundamental neural mechanism for a postural response. We revealed that EEG oscillations and interareal synchronization, at θ‐, α‐ and β‐band frequency, are dynamically modulated during the preparatory period when perturbation can be predicted.