Functional magnetic resonance imaging connectivity analyses reveal efference-copy to primary somatosensory area, BA2

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 8;9(1):e84367. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0084367. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

Some theories of motor control suggest efference-copies of motor commands reach somatosensory cortices. Here we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to test these models. We varied the amount of efference-copy signal by making participants squeeze a soft material either actively or passively. We found electromyographical recordings, an efference-copy proxy, to predict activity in primary somatosensory regions, in particular Brodmann Area (BA) 2. Partial correlation analyses confirmed that brain activity in cortical structures associated with motor control (premotor and supplementary motor cortices, the parietal area PF and the cerebellum) predicts brain activity in BA2 without being entirely mediated by activity in early somatosensory (BA3b) cortex. Our study therefore provides valuable empirical evidence for efference-copy models of motor control, and shows that signals in BA2 can indeed reflect an input from motor cortices and suggests that we should interpret activations in BA2 as evidence for somatosensory-motor rather than somatosensory coding alone.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Analysis of Variance
  • Efferent Pathways / physiology
  • Electromyography
  • Female
  • Fingers / physiology
  • Humans
  • Magnetic Resonance Imaging*
  • Male
  • Movement / physiology
  • Nerve Net / physiology*
  • Somatosensory Cortex / physiology*
  • Young Adult

Grants and funding

The work was supported by a Marie Curie Excellence Grant of the European Commission and a VIDI grant of the Dutch science foundation to CK (N.W.O.), a VENI grant of N.W.O. to VG, Fulbright scholarship to DA and the China Scholarship Council for State Scholarship Fund to FC. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.