TY - JOUR
T1 - Frontal functional connectivity of electrocorticographic delta and theta rhythms during action execution versus action observation in humans
AU - Babiloni, Claudio
AU - Del Percio, Claudio
AU - Lopez, Susanna
AU - Di Gennaro, Giancarlo
AU - Quarato, Pier P.
AU - Pavone, Luigi
AU - Morace, Roberta
AU - Soricelli, Andrea
AU - Noce, Giuseppe
AU - Esposito, Vincenzo
AU - Gallese, Vittorio
AU - Mirabella, Giovanni
PY - 2017/2/7
Y1 - 2017/2/7
N2 - We have previously shown that in seven drug-resistant epilepsy patients, both reaching-grasping of objects and the mere observation of those actions did desynchronize subdural electrocorticographic (ECoG) alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (14-30) rhythms as a sign of cortical activation in primary somatosensory-motor, lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas (Babiloni et al., 2016a). Furthermore, that desynchronization was greater during action execution than during its observation. In the present exploratory study, we reanalyzed those ECoG data to evaluate the proof-of-concept that lagged linear connectivity (LLC) between primary somatosensory-motor, lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas would be enhanced during the action execution compared to the mere observation due to a greater flow of visual and somatomotor information. Results showed that the delta-theta (<8 Hz) LLC between lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas was higher during action execution than during action observation. Furthermore, the phase of these delta-theta rhythms entrained the local event-related connectivity of alpha and beta rhythms. It was speculated the existence of a multi-oscillatory functional network between high-order frontal motor areas which should be more involved during the actual reaching-grasping of objects compared to its mere observation. Future studies in a larger population should cross-validate these preliminary results.
AB - We have previously shown that in seven drug-resistant epilepsy patients, both reaching-grasping of objects and the mere observation of those actions did desynchronize subdural electrocorticographic (ECoG) alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (14-30) rhythms as a sign of cortical activation in primary somatosensory-motor, lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas (Babiloni et al., 2016a). Furthermore, that desynchronization was greater during action execution than during its observation. In the present exploratory study, we reanalyzed those ECoG data to evaluate the proof-of-concept that lagged linear connectivity (LLC) between primary somatosensory-motor, lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas would be enhanced during the action execution compared to the mere observation due to a greater flow of visual and somatomotor information. Results showed that the delta-theta (<8 Hz) LLC between lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas was higher during action execution than during action observation. Furthermore, the phase of these delta-theta rhythms entrained the local event-related connectivity of alpha and beta rhythms. It was speculated the existence of a multi-oscillatory functional network between high-order frontal motor areas which should be more involved during the actual reaching-grasping of objects compared to its mere observation. Future studies in a larger population should cross-validate these preliminary results.
KW - Exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA)
KW - Frontal cortex
KW - Lagged linear connectivity
KW - Mirror neuron system
KW - Movement execution
KW - Movement observation
KW - Subdural electrocorticography (ECoG)
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U2 - 10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00020
DO - 10.3389/fnbeh.2017.00020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85012077007
VL - 11
JO - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
JF - Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience
SN - 1662-5153
M1 - 20
ER -