Neuronal network coherent with hand kinematics during fast repetitive hand movements

We quantified the coupling between magnetoencephalographic (MEG) cortical signals and the kinematics of fast repetitive voluntary hand movements monitored by a 3-axis accelerometer. Ten healthy right-handed adults performed self-paced flexion-extension movements of right-hand fingers at ~3Hz with either touching the thumb during flexions (TOUCH) or not (noTOUCH). At the sensor level, we found in all subjects and conditions significant coherence at the movement frequency (F0) and its first harmonic (F1). Coherence values were significantly higher in TOUCH compared to noTOUCH. At the group level, dynamic imaging of coherent sources localized the main source of coherent activity at the left primary motor (M1) hand area, except at F0 TOUCH were the main source was localized at the left primary sensory (S1) hand area. Other coherent brain areas were also identified at right S1-M1 cortices (F0), left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (F1), left posterior parietal cortex (F0 TOUCH and F1 noTOUCH) and left medial S1-M1 areas (TOUCH). This study highlights the prominent role of rhythmic neuronal activity phase-locked to movements for the encoding and the integration of key sensori-motor features of limb kinematics. This study also suggests that somatosensory afferences play a key role to sustain a high synchronization level between the neuronal activity in coherent brain areas and hand acceleration. Some coherent brain regions differed between F0 and F1 in both conditions, suggesting that distinct cortical areas are involved in different features of hand kinematics.