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Cerebral Cortex Advance Access originally published online on October 3, 2008
Cerebral Cortex 2009 19(6):1294-1302; doi:10.1093/cercor/bhn174
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

A Role of Beta Oscillatory Synchrony in Biasing Response Competition?

B.C.M. van Wijk1, A. Daffertshofer1, N. Roach2 and P. Praamstra2

1 Research Institute MOVE, VU University Amsterdam, van der Boechorststraat 9, 1081BT Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2 Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, School of Psychology, University of Birmingham Birmingham, B15 2TT, UK

Address correspondence to Peter Praamstra, Behavioural Brain Sciences Centre, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, UK. Email: p.praamstra{at}bham.ac.uk.

Beta-range oscillatory activity measured over the motor cortex and beta synchrony between cortex and spinal cord can be up- or downregulated in anticipation of a postural challenge or the initiation of movement. Based on these properties of beta activity in the preparation for future events, the present investigation addressed whether simultaneous up- and downregulation of beta activity might act as an online mechanism to suppress and select competing responses. Measures of local and long-range beta synchrony were obtained from electroencephalographic and electromyographic signals recorded during a cued choice reaction task. Analyses focused on task-related changes in beta synchrony during a 2-s delay period between cue and response signal. Analyzed separately, none of the beta measures (spectral power, corticospinal coherence, corticospinal phase synchronization) showed simultaneous up- and downregulation over opposite hemispheres controlling the competing responses. However, the combined pattern of beta measures showed beta power desynchronization associated with selection of a response and increased corticospinal coherence and phase synchronization associated with suppression of a response. These results indicate that concurrent up- and downregulation of different components of beta oscillatory activity is likely to have a functional role in response selection, resembling attentional modulation of alpha activity in visual selection.

Key Words: corticospinal coherence • electroencephalography • movement preparation • response selection • sensorimotor function


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