Group-level cortical and muscular connectivity during perturbations to walking and standing balance

• Published in: NeuroImage (Orlando, Fla.) Vol. 198; pp. 93 - 103
• Main Authors: Peterson, Steven M., Ferris, Daniel P.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.09.2019; Elsevier Limited
• Subjects: Adult; Balance; Balance perturbation; Brain - physiology; Effective connectivity; Electroencephalography; Electromyography; Female; Fitness equipment; Gait; Humans; Independent component analysis; Information processing; Laboratories; Leg; Male; Muscle contraction; Muscle, Skeletal - innervation; Muscle, Skeletal - physiology; Muscles; Neural Pathways - physiology; Physical Stimulation; Postural Balance - physiology; Posture; Sensorimotor integration; Sensory integration; Somatosensory cortex; Studies; Touch Perception; Virtual reality; Visual cortex; Visual Perception; Walking; Walking - physiology; Young Adult; Balance perturbation; Electroencephalography; Virtual reality; Independent component analysis; Effective connectivity
• ISSN: 1053-8119; 1095-9572; 1095-9572
• DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.05.038

Maintaining balance is a complex process requiring multisensory processing and coordinated muscle activation. Previous studies have indicated that the cortex is directly involved in balance control, but less information is known about cortical flow of signals for balance. We studied source-localized electrocortical effective connectivity dynamics of healthy young subjects (29 subjects: 14 male and 15 female) walking and standing with both visual and physical perturbations to their balance. The goal of this study was to quantify differences in group-level corticomuscular connectivity responses to sensorimotor perturbations during walking and standing. We hypothesized that perturbed visual input during balance would transiently decrease connectivity between occipital and parietal areas due to disruptive visual input during sensory processing. We also hypothesized that physical pull perturbations would increase cortical connections to central sensorimotor areas because of higher sensorimotor integration demands. Our findings show decreased occipito-parietal connectivity during visual rotations and widespread increases in connectivity during pull perturbations focused on central areas, as expected. We also found evidence for communication from cortex to muscles during perturbed balance. These results show that sensorimotor perturbations to balance alter cortical networks and can be quantified using effective connectivity estimation. •Cortical connectivity during perturbed balance has not been well studied.•We computed multi-subject, source-localized EEG connectivity across frequency bands.•Altered occipito-parietal connectivity reflects changes to sensorimotor integration.•Supplementary motor area was a cortical hub during pull perturbations.•Perturbed balance alters cortical connectivity, which can be studied across subjects.