The influence of the pre-stimulus beta activity on subsequent reaction times
-
1
Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Netherlands
There has recently been an emergence of studies that have found pre-stimulus oscillatory activity in the visual system to have a significant influence on the subject’s visual perception and subsequent processing of stimuli. However, the influence of pre-stimulus activity in the motor system with respect reaction times (RTs) is relatively unexplored.The most prevalent oscillatory activity in the motor system is at the beta frequency band (~20 Hz). In this experiment we used a simple Go/nogo paradigm and MEG (151 sensors VSM/CTF system) measurements to investigate how beta activity just prior to the onset of the stimuli influences the subsequent RT. Subjects were required to respond by pressing a button to a frequent Go stimulus (digit 1-4 and 6-9) but to withhold responses to an infrequent noGo stimulus (‘5’).Trials were then categorized as Hits (response to any digit except 5), and ‘False Alarms’ (responses to the ‘5’). For all sensors and each trial, the amplitude of the beta activity (20-25 Hz) was obtained using a Hanning taper (500 ms long). Next, trial-by-trial correlations between beta amplitude at each sensor with subsequent RT were calculated to create correlation topographies. The statistical significance of the correlation topographies were assessed at the group level with a one-sample t-test of the correlations (beta vs RT) at each sensor and then subjected to a cluster-level randomization test to correct for multiple comparisons. For both the false alarms and hits we found a cluster comprising of frontal sensors over the supplementary motor area (SMA) to be positively correlated on a trial-by-trial basis with RTs (p<0.001). This is consistent with the proposition that engagement of the SMA is reflected by a decrease in the beta band. The SMA engagement during the interval between individual movements contributes to encoding and planning the next movement in a motor sequence. The examination of trial-by-trial correlations of oscillatory activity with behavior has the potential to provide a novel but powerful tool for directly linking brain activity with behavior.
Conference:
Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism , Dubrovnik, Croatia, 28 Mar - 1 Apr, 2010.
Presentation Type:
Poster Presentation
Topic:
Sensory Processing and Functional Connectivity
Citation:
Mazaheri
A and
Jensen
O
(2010). The influence of the pre-stimulus beta activity on subsequent reaction times.
Front. Neurosci.
Conference Abstract:
Biomag 2010 - 17th International Conference on Biomagnetism .
doi: 10.3389/conf.fnins.2010.06.00148
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
25 Mar 2010;
Published Online:
25 Mar 2010.
*
Correspondence:
Ali Mazaheri, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Nijmegen, Netherlands, ali.mazaheri@donders.ru.nl