Joshua B Ewen1, Balaji M Lakshmanan2, Mark Hallett3, Stewart H Mostofsky4, Nathan E Crone5, Anna Korzeniewska6. 1. Department of Neurology and Developmental Medicine, Kennedy Krieger Institute, 707 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Electronic address: ewen@kennedykrieger.org. 2. Department of Neurology and Developmental Medicine, Kennedy Krieger Institute, 707 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA. Electronic address: lakshmanan@kennedykrieger.org. 3. Human Motor Control Section, Medical Neurology Branch, National Institutes of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, National Institutes of Health, Building 10, Room 7D37, 10 Center Drive, MSC 1428, Bethesda, MD 20892-1428, USA. Electronic address: hallettm@ninds.nih.gov. 4. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA; Laboratory for Neurocognitive and Imaging Research, Kennedy Krieger Institute, 707 N. Broadway, Baltimore, MD 21205, USA; Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Electronic address: mostofsky@kennedykrieger.org. 5. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Electronic address: ncrone@jhmi.edu. 6. Department of Neurology, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 N. Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. Electronic address: akorzen@jhmi.edu.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE: Praxis, the performance of complex motor gestures, is crucial to the development of motor and social/communicative capacities. Praxis relies on a network consisting of inferior parietal and premotor regions, particularly on the left, and is thought to require transformation of spatio-temporal representations (parietal) into movement sequences (premotor). METHOD: We examined praxis network dynamics by measuring EEG effective connectivity while healthy subjects performed a praxis task. RESULTS: Propagation from parietal to frontal regions was not statistically greater on the left than the right. However, propagation from left parietal regions to all other regions was significantly greater during gesture preparation than execution. Moreover, during gesture preparation only, propagation from the left parietal region to bilateral frontal regions was greater than reciprocal propagations to the left parietal region. This directional specificity was not observed for the right parietal region. CONCLUSIONS: These findings represent direct electrophysiological evidence for directionally predominant propagation in left frontal-parietal networks during praxis behavior, which may reflect neural mechanisms by which representations in the human brain select appropriate motor sequences for subsequent execution. SIGNIFICANCE: In addition to bolstering the classic view of praxis network function, these results also demonstrate the relevance of additional information provided by directed connectivity measures.
OBJECTIVE: Praxis, the performance of complex motor gestures, is crucial to the development of motor and social/communicative capacities. Praxis relies on a network consisting of inferior parietal and premotor regions, particularly on the left, and is thought to require transformation of spatio-temporal representations (parietal) into movement sequences (premotor). METHOD: We examined praxis network dynamics by measuring EEG effective connectivity while healthy subjects performed a praxis task. RESULTS: Propagation from parietal to frontal regions was not statistically greater on the left than the right. However, propagation from left parietal regions to all other regions was significantly greater during gesture preparation than execution. Moreover, during gesture preparation only, propagation from the left parietal region to bilateral frontal regions was greater than reciprocal propagations to the left parietal region. This directional specificity was not observed for the right parietal region. CONCLUSIONS: These findings represent direct electrophysiological evidence for directionally predominant propagation in left frontal-parietal networks during praxis behavior, which may reflect neural mechanisms by which representations in the human brain select appropriate motor sequences for subsequent execution. SIGNIFICANCE: In addition to bolstering the classic view of praxis network function, these results also demonstrate the relevance of additional information provided by directed connectivity measures.
Authors: Kevin A Mazurek; David Richardson; Nicholas Abraham; John J Foxe; Edward G Freedman Journal: IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng Date: 2019-09-27 Impact factor: 3.802
Authors: Danielle McAuliffe; Kathryn Hirabayashi; Jack H Adamek; Yu Luo; Deana Crocetti; Ajay S Pillai; Yi Zhao; Nathan E Crone; Stewart H Mostofsky; Joshua B Ewen Journal: Eur J Neurosci Date: 2019-12-30 Impact factor: 3.386
Authors: Joshua B Ewen; Ajay S Pillai; Danielle McAuliffe; Balaji M Lakshmanan; Katarina Ament; Mark Hallett; Nathan E Crone; Stewart H Mostofsky Journal: Front Hum Neurosci Date: 2016-02-05 Impact factor: 3.169
Authors: Ajay S Pillai; Danielle McAuliffe; Balaji M Lakshmanan; Stewart H Mostofsky; Nathan E Crone; Joshua B Ewen Journal: Autism Res Date: 2017-09-12 Impact factor: 4.633
Authors: Joshua B Ewen; Balaji M Lakshmanan; Ajay S Pillai; Danielle McAuliffe; Carrie Nettles; Mark Hallett; Nathan E Crone; Stewart H Mostofsky Journal: Front Hum Neurosci Date: 2016-05-06 Impact factor: 3.169