Non-invasive brain stimulation of motor cortex induces embodiment when integrated with virtual reality feedback

Previous evidence highlighted the multisensory-motor origin of embodiment - that is, the experience of having a body and of being in control of it - and the possibility of experimentally manipulating it. For instance, an illusory feeling of embodiment towards a fake hand can be triggered by providing synchronous visuo-tactile stimulation to the hand of participants and to a fake hand or by asking participants to move their hand and observe a fake hand moving accordingly (rubber hand illusion). Here, we tested whether it is possible to manipulate embodiment not through stimulation of the participant's hand, but by directly tapping into the brain's hand representation via non-invasive brain stimulation. To this aim, we combined transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), to activate the hand corticospinal representation, with virtual reality (VR), to provide matching (as contrasted to non-matching) visual feedback, mimicking involuntary hand movements evoked by TMS. We show that the illusory embodiment occurred when TMS pulses were temporally matched with VR feedback, but not when TMS was administered outside primary motor cortex, (over the vertex) or when stimulating motor cortex at a lower intensity (that did not activate peripheral muscles). Behavioural (questionnaires) and neurophysiological (motor-evoked-potentials, TMS-evoked-movements) measures further indicated that embodiment was not explained by stimulation per se, but depended on the temporal coherence between TMS-induced activation of hand corticospinal representation and the virtual bodily feedback. This reveals that non-invasive brain stimulation may replace the application of external tactile hand cues and motor components related to volition, planning and anticipation.

The role of the inferior parietal lobule in writer's cramp

Traian Popa

Humans have a distinguishing ability for fine motor control that is subserved by a highly evolved cortico-motor neuronal network. The acquisition of a particular motor skill involves a long series of practice movements, trial and error, adjustment and refinement. At the cortical level, this acquisition begins in the parieto-temporal sensory regions and is subsequently consolidated and stratified in the premotor-motor cortex. Task-specific dystonia can be viewed as a corruption or loss of motor control confined to a single motor skill. Using a multimodal experimental approach combining neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation, we explored interactions between the principal nodes of the fine motor control network in patients with writer's cramp and healthy matched controls. Patients and healthy volunteers underwent clinical assessment, diffusion-weighted MRI for tractography, and functional MRI during a finger tapping task. Activation maps from the task-functional MRI scans were used for target selection and neuronavigation of the transcranial magnetic stimulation. Single- and double-pulse TMS evaluation included measurement of the input-output recruitment curve, cortical silent period, and amplitude of the motor evoked potentials conditioned by cortico-cortical interactions between premotor ventral (PMv)-motor cortex (M1), anterior inferior parietal lobule (aIPL)-M1, and dorsal inferior parietal lobule (dIPL)-M1 before and after inducing a long term depression-like plastic change to dIPL node with continuous thetaburst transcranial magnetic stimulation in a randomized, sham-controlled design. Baseline dIPL-M1 and aIPL-M1 cortico-cortical interactions were facilitatory and inhibitory, respectively, in healthy volunteers, whereas the interactions were converse and significantly different in writer's cramp. Baseline PMv-M1 interactions were inhibitory and similar between the groups. The dIPL-PMv resting state functional connectivity was increased in patients compared to controls, but no differences in structural connectivity between the nodes were observed. Cortical silent period was significantly prolonged in writer's cramp. Making a long term depression-like plastic change to dIPL node transformed the aIPL-M1 interaction to inhibitory (similar to healthy volunteers) and cancelled the PMv-M1 inhibition only in the writer's cramp group. These findings suggest that the parietal multimodal sensory association region could have an aberrant downstream influence on the fine motor control network in writer's cramp, which could be artificially restored to its normal function.

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2020

Reorganization of the human ipsilesional premotor cortex after stroke

Friedhelm Christoph Hummel

The substrates that mediate recovery of motor function after stroke are incompletely understood. Several primate and human studies proposed the involvement of the premotor cortex of the lesioned hemisphere. Here, we studied four chronic stroke patients with focal subcortical lesions affecting the corticospinal outflow originating in the primary motor cortex (M1) and good motor recovery. We tested the hypothesis that, in these patients, disruption of activity in the premotor cortex of the lesioned hemisphere by transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) would result in degraded behaviour in the paretic hand. TMS was applied to the primary motor cortex, dorsal premotor cortex (PMd) and ventral premotor cortex (PMv) of the affected (M1AH, PMdAH, PMvAH) and intact (M1IH, PMdIH, PMvIH) hemispheres of patients and healthy controls in the setting of a simple reaction time (SRT) paradigm performed with the hand contralateral to the stimulated hemisphere. TMS applied to M1 led to substantial contralateral SRT delays in both groups. TMS applied to PMdAH of patients elicited clear delays in contralateral SRT in the paretic hand, whereas TMS applied to PMdIH of patients or healthy volunteers did not. Motor evoked potentials after stimulation of PMdAH were, on average, larger and had, on average, shorter latency than after stimulation of M1AH. These results indicate that PMdAH participates as a substrate mediating functional recovery of executive motor function in patients with focal lesions of corticospinal outflow originating in M1 and good motor recovery. Our results are consistent with the hypothesis that the dorsal premotor cortex of the affected hemisphere can reorganize to control basic parameters of movement usually assigned to M1 function.

Oxford University Press2004

Hand perceptions induced by single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation over the primary motor cortex

Michela Bassolino, Olaf Blanke, Matteo Franza, Andrea Serino, Giuliana Sorrentino, Matteo Vissani

Background When single pulse transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is applied over the primary motor cortex (M1) with sufficient intensity, it evokes muscular contractions (motor-evoked potentials, MEPs) and muscle twitches (TMS-evoked movements). Participants may also report various hand sensations related to TMS, but the perception elicited by TMS and its relationship to MEPs and evoked movements has not been systematically studied. Objective The main aim of this work is to evaluate participants' kinesthetic and somatosensory hand perceptions elicited by single-pulse TMS over M1-hand area at different intensities of stimulation and their relation with MEPs and TMS-evoked movements. Methods We compared the number of MEPs (measured by electromyography), TMS-evoked movements (measured by an accelerometer) and participants' hand perception (measured by verbal report) elicited by TMS at different intensity of stimulation. This way, we estimated the amplitude of MEPs and the acceleration of TMS-evoked movements sufficient to trigger TMS evoked hand perceptions. Results We found that TMS-evoked hand perceptions are induced at 105% of the individual resting motor threshold, a value significantly different from the threshold inducing MEPs (about 100%) and TMS-evoked movements (about 110%). Our data indicate that only MEPs with an amplitude higher than 0.62 mV and TMS-evoked movements with acceleration higher than 0.42 m/s2 were associated with hand perceptions at threshold. Conclusions Our data reveal the main features of TMS-evoked hand perception and show that in addition to MEPs and TMS-evoked movements, this is a separate discernible response associated to single-pulse TMS over M1.

2019

The role of the inferior parietal lobule in writer's cramp

Traian Popa

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2020