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Neural mechanism of selective finger movement independent of synergistic movement

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Abstract

Muscle synergy is important for simplifying functional movement, which constitutes spatiotemporal patterns of activity across muscles. To execute selective finger movements that are independent of synergistic movement patterns, we hypothesized that inhibitory neural activity is necessary to suppress enslaved finger movement caused by synergist muscles. To test this hypothesis, we focused on a pair of synergist muscles used in the hand opening movement, namely the index finger abductor and little finger abductor (abductor digiti minimi; ADM), and examined whether inhibitory neural activity in ADM occurs during selective index finger abduction/adduction movements and/or its imagery using transcranial magnetic stimulation and F-wave analysis. During the index finger adduction movement, background EMG activity, F-wave persistence, and motor evoked potential (MEP) amplitude in ADM were elevated. However, during the index finger abduction movement, ADM MEP amplitude remained unchanged despite increased background EMG activity and F-wave persistence. These results suggest that increased spinal excitability in ADM is counterbalanced by cortical-mediated inhibition only during selective index finger abduction movement. This assumption was further supported by the results of motor imagery experiments. Although F-wave persistence in ADM increased only during motor imagery of index finger abduction, ADM MEP amplitude during motor imagery of index finger abduction was significantly lower than that during adduction. Overall, our findings indicate that cortical-mediated inhibition contributes to the execution of selective finger movements that are independent of synergistic hand movement patterns.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI [Grant #16K16433 (T.A.)].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Therapy, Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences, 4669-2 Ami, Ami-Machi, Inashiki-gun, Ibaraki, Japan

    Toshiyuki Aoyama & Yukari Ohashi

  2. Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Keio University School of Medicine, 35 Shinanomachi, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan

    Fuminari Kaneko

  3. Center for Medical Sciences, Ibaraki Prefectural University of Health Sciences, 4669-2 Ami, Ami-Machi, Inashiki-gun, Ibaraki, Japan

    Yutaka Kohno

Authors
  1. Toshiyuki Aoyama
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  2. Fuminari Kaneko
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  3. Yukari Ohashi
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  4. Yutaka Kohno
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Contributions

TA: contributed to the design of the study, data collection, data analysis, and manuscript preparation; FK: contributed to the design of the study, data analysis, and manuscript preparation; YO: contributed to data analysis and manuscript preparation; YK: contributed to data collection, data analysis, and manuscript preparation.

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Correspondence to Toshiyuki Aoyama.

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Communicated by Winston D Byblow.

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Aoyama, T., Kaneko, F., Ohashi, Y. et al. Neural mechanism of selective finger movement independent of synergistic movement. Exp Brain Res 237, 3485–3492 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-019-05693-x

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