Corrigendum to “Changes of gamma-band oscillatory activity to tonic muscle pain” [Neurosci. Lett. 627 (2016) 126–131]

The human cognitive system is highly efficient in extracting information from our visual environment. This efficiency is based on acquired knowledge that guides our attention toward relevant events and promotes the recognition of individual objects as they appear in visual scenes. The experience-based representation of such knowledge contains not only information about the individual objects but also about relations between them, such as the typical context in which individual objects co-occur. The present EEG study aimed at exploring the availability of such relational knowledge in the time course of visual scene processing, using oscillatory evoked gamma-band responses as a neural correlate for a currently activated cortical stimulus representation. Participants decided whether two simultaneously presented objects were conceptually coherent (e.g., mouse–cheese) or not (e.g., crown–mushroom). We obtained increased evoked gamma-band responses for coherent scenes compared with incoherent scenes beginning as early as 70 msec after stimulus onset within a distributed cortical network, including the right temporal, the right frontal, and the bilateral occipital cortex. This finding provides empirical evidence for the functional importance of evoked oscillatory activity in high-level vision beyond the visual cortex and, thus, gives new insights into the functional relevance of neuronal interactions. It also indicates the very early availability of experience-based knowledge that might be regarded as a fundamental mechanism for the rapid extraction of the gist of a scene.

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Effects of tonic muscle pain on fusimotor control of human muscle spindles during isometric ankle dorsiflexion

Journal of Neurophysiology ◽

10.1152/jn.00862.2018 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 121 (4) ◽

pp. 1143-1149

Author(s):

Lyndon J. Smith ◽

Vaughan G. Macefield ◽

Ingvars Birznieks ◽

Alexander R. Burton

Keyword(s):

Muscle Spindle ◽

Muscle Pain ◽

Tibialis Anterior Muscle ◽

Muscle Spindles ◽

Muscle Spindle Afferents ◽

Firing Rates ◽

Leg Muscles ◽

Tonic Muscle ◽

Voluntary Contractions ◽

Ankle Dorsiflexors

Studies on anesthetized animals have revealed that nociceptors can excite fusimotor neurons and thereby change the sensitivity of muscle spindles to stretch; such nociceptive reflexes have been suggested to underlie the mechanisms that lead to chronic musculoskeletal pain syndromes. However, the validity of the “vicious cycle” hypothesis in humans has yielded results contrasting with those found in animals. Given that spindle firing rates are much lower in humans than in animals, it is possible that some of the discrepancies between human experimental data and those obtained in animals could be explained by differences in background fusimotor drive when the leg muscles are relaxed. We examined the effects of tonic muscle pain during voluntary contractions of the ankle dorsiflexors. Unitary recordings were obtained from 10 fusimotor-driven muscle spindle afferents (6 primary, 4 secondary) supplying the ankle dorsiflexors via a microelectrode inserted percutaneously into the common peroneal nerve. A series of 1-min weak contractions was performed at rest and during 1 h of muscle pain induced by intramuscular infusion of 5% hypertonic saline into the tibialis anterior muscle. We did not observe any statistically significant increases in muscle spindle firing rates of six afferents followed during tonic muscle pain, although discharge variability increased slightly. Furthermore, a participant’s capacity to maintain a constant level of force, while relying on proprioceptive feedback in the absence of visual feedback, was not compromised during pain. We conclude that nociceptive inputs from contracting muscle do not excite fusimotor neurons during voluntary isometric contractions in humans. NEW & NOTEWORTHY Data obtained in the cat have shown that muscle pain causes a marked increase in the firing of muscle spindles, attributed to a nociceptor-driven fusimotor reflex. However, our studies of muscle spindles in relaxed leg muscles failed to find any effect on spindle discharge. Here we showed that experimental muscle pain failed to increase the firing of muscle spindle afferents during weak voluntary contractions, when fusimotor drive sufficient to increase their firing is present.

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A Novel Method for Reducing the Effect of Tonic Muscle Activity on the Gamma Band of the Scalp EEG

Brain Topography ◽

10.1007/s10548-012-0255-9 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 26 (1) ◽

pp. 50-61 ◽

Cited By ~ 18

Author(s):

Judith F. Nottage ◽

Paul D. Morrison ◽

Steve C. R. Williams ◽

Dominic H. ffytche

Keyword(s):

Muscle Activity ◽

Gamma Band ◽

Scalp Eeg ◽

Tonic Muscle ◽

Novel Method

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Long-lasting effect evoked by tonic muscle pain on parietal EEG activity in humans

Clinical Neurophysiology ◽

10.1016/s1388-2457(00)00474-0 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 111 (12) ◽

pp. 2130-2137 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Domenica Le Pera ◽

Peter Svensson ◽

Massimiliano Valeriani ◽

Ippei Watanabe ◽

Lars Arendt-Nielsen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Muscle Pain ◽

Eeg Activity ◽

Lasting Effect ◽

Tonic Muscle

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Effects of beta- and gamma-band rhythmic stimulation on motor inhibition

10.1101/2020.12.11.422006 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Inge Leunissen ◽

Manon Van Steenkiste ◽

Kirstin Heise ◽

Thiago Santos Monteiro ◽

Kyle Dunovan ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Gamma Oscillations ◽

Gamma Band ◽

Stop Signal ◽

Gamma Activity ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Beta Activity ◽

Motor Inhibition ◽

Beta Band ◽

Beta Power ◽

Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation

Voluntary movements are accompanied by an increase in gamma-band oscillatory activity (60-100Hz) and a strong desynchronization of beta-band activity (13-30Hz) in the motor system at both the cortical and subcortical level. Conversely, successful motor inhibition is associated with increased beta power in a fronto-basal-ganglia network. Intriguingly, gamma activity also increases in response to a stop-signal. In this study, we used transcranial alternating current stimulation to drive beta and gamma oscillations to investigate whether these frequencies are causally related to motor inhibition. We found that 20Hz stimulation targeted at the pre-supplementary motor area enhanced inhibition and increased beta oscillatory activity around the time of the stop-signal in trials directly following stimulation. In contrast, 70Hz stimulation seemed to slow down the braking process, and predominantly affected go task performance. These results demonstrate that the effects of tACS are state-dependent and that especially fronto-central beta activity is a functional marker for successful motor inhibition.

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Brain–Heart Interaction During Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation

Frontiers in Neuroscience ◽

10.3389/fnins.2021.632697 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 15 ◽

Author(s):

Kathrin Machetanz ◽

Levan Berelidze ◽

Robert Guggenberger ◽

Alireza Gharabaghi

Keyword(s):

Vagus Nerve ◽

Nerve Stimulation ◽

Vagus Nerve Stimulation ◽

Heart Function ◽

Brain Activity ◽

Gamma Band ◽

Cortical Activation ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Beta Band ◽

Rr Intervals

ObjectivesTranscutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation (taVNS) modulates brain activity and heart function. The induced parasympathetic predominance leads to an increase of heart rate variability (HRV). Knowledge on the corresponding cortical activation pattern is, however, scarce. We hypothesized taVNS-induced HRV increases to be related to modulation of cortical activity that regulates the autonomic outflow to the heart.Materials and MethodsIn thirteen healthy subjects, we simultaneously recorded 64-channel electroencephalography and electrocardiography during taVNS. Two taVNS stimulation targets were investigated, i.e., the cymba conchae and inner tragus, and compared to active control stimulation in the anatomical vicinity, i.e., at the crus helicis and outer tragus. We used intermitted stimulation bursts of 25 Hz applied at a periodicity of 1 Hz. HRV was estimated with different time-domain methodologies: standard deviation of RR (SDNN), the root mean squares of successive differences (RMSSD), the percentage of RR-intervals with at least 50 ms deviation from the preceding RR-interval (pNN50), and the difference of consecutive RR intervals weighted by their mean (rrHRV).ResultsThe stimulation-induced HRV increases corresponded to frequency-specific oscillatory modulation of different cortical areas. All stimulation targets induced power modulations that were proportional to the HRV elevation. The most prominent changes that corresponded to HRV increases across all parameters and stimulation locations were frontal elevations in the theta-band. In the delta-band, there were frontal increases (RMSSD, pNN50, rrHRV, SDNN) and decreases (SDNN) across stimulation sites. In higher frequencies, there was a more divers activity pattern: Outer tragus/crus helicis stimulation increased oscillatory activity with the most prominent changes for the SDNN in frontal (alpha-band, beta-band) and fronto-parietal (gamma-band) areas. During inner tragus/cymba conchae stimulation the predominant pattern was a distributed power decrease, particularly in the fronto-parietal gamma-band.ConclusionNeuro–cardiac interactions can be modulated by electrical stimulation at different auricular locations. Increased HRV during stimulation is correlated with frequency-specific increases and decreases of oscillatory activity in different brain areas. When applying specific HRV measures, cortical patterns related to parasympathetic (RMSSD, pNN50, rrHRV) and sympathetic (SDNN) modulation can be identified. Thus, cortical oscillations may be used to define stimulation locations and parameters for research and therapeutic purposes.

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The Effect of Alterations of Schizophrenia-Associated Genes on Gamma Band Oscillations

10.1101/2020.09.28.316737 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Christoph Metzner ◽

Tuomo Mäki-Marttunen ◽

Gili Karni ◽

Hana McMahon-Cole ◽

Volker Steuber

Keyword(s):

Genetic Variants ◽

Association Studies ◽

Primary Auditory Cortex ◽

Gamma Band ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Genome Wide Association Studies ◽

Genome Wide ◽

Common Genetic Variants ◽

Gamma Power ◽

Response Task

Abnormalities in the synchronized oscillatory activity of neurons in general and, specifically in the gamma band, might play a crucial role in the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. While these changes in oscillatory activity have traditionally been linked to alterations at the synaptic level, we demonstrate here, using computational modeling, that common genetic variants of ion channels can contribute strongly to this effect. Our model of primary auditory cortex highlights multiple schizophrenia-associated genetic variants that reduce gamma power in an auditory steady-state response task. Furthermore, we show that combinations of several of these schizophrenia-associated variants can produce similar effects as the more traditionally considered synaptic changes. Overall, our study provides a mechanistic link between schizophrenia-associated common genetic variants, as identified by genome-wide association studies, and one of the most robust neurophysiological endophenotypes of schizophrenia.

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Pallidal Thermolesion Unleashes Gamma Oscillations in the Motor Cortex in Parkinson's Disease

Neurosurgery ◽

10.1093/neuros/nyz310_692 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 66 (Supplement_1) ◽

Author(s):

Doris D Wang ◽

Coralie de Hemptinne ◽

Svjetlana Miocinovic ◽

Witney Chen ◽

Jill L Ostrem ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Parkinson’S Disease ◽

Parkinson's Disease ◽

Motor Cortex ◽

Essential Tremor ◽

Primary Motor Cortex ◽

Gamma Oscillations ◽

Gamma Band ◽

Motor Dysfunction ◽

Oscillatory Activity ◽

Motor Network

Abstract INTRODUCTION In Parkinson's disease, the emergence of motor dysfunction is thought to be related to an imbalance between antikinetic and prokinetic patterns of oscillatory activity in the motor network. Invasive recordings from the basal ganglia and cortex in surgical patients have suggested that levodopa and therapeutic deep brain stimulation can suppress antikinetic beta band (13-30 Hz) rhythms while promoting prokinetic gamma band (60-90 Hz) rhythms. Surgical ablation of the globus pallidus internus is one of the oldest effective therapies for Parkinson's disease and gives a remarkable immediate relief from rigidity and bradykinesia, but its effects on oscillatory activity in the motor network have not been studied. We characterize the effects of pallidotomy on cortical oscillatory activity in Parkinson's disease patients. METHODS Using a temporary 6-contact lead placed over the sensorimotor cortex in the subdural space, we recorded acute changes in cortical oscillatory activities in 3 Parkinson's disease patients undergoing pallidotomy and compared the results to that of 3 essential tremor patients undergoing thalamotomy. RESULTS In all 3 Parkinson's disease patients, we observed the emergence of an approximately 70 to 80 Hz narrow-band oscillation with effective thermolesion of the pallidum. This gamma oscillatory activity was spatially localized over the primary motor cortex, was minimally affected by voluntary movements, and was not found in the motor cortex of essential tremor patients undergoing thalamotomy. CONCLUSION Our finding suggests that acute lesioning of the pallidum promotes cortical gamma band oscillations. This may represent an important mechanism for alleviating bradykinesia in Parkinson's disease.

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