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The relationships between motor behavior and sensory gating in the ball rotation task

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Abstract

During voluntary muscle contraction, sensory information induced by electrostimulation of the nerves supplying the contracting muscle is inhibited and the amplitude of the corresponding somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) decreases. This phenomenon is called “gating.” The reduction of the SEP amplitude is reportedly significantly larger when task performance is high. However, the relationship between dexterous movement skills and gating remains unclear. In this study, we investigated through a ball rotation (BR) task how dexterous movement skills affect the SEP amplitudes. Thirty healthy subjects performed the BR task comprising the rotation of two wooden balls as quickly as possible. We estimated the median number of ball rotations for each participant and classified the participants into two (fast and slow) groups based on the results. Moreover, we recorded SEPs, while the subjects performed BR tasks or rested. SEP amplitude reduction (P45) was significantly larger in the fast than in the slow group. We also observed that the P45 amplitude during the BR task was attenuated even more so in the case of the participants with better dexterous movement skills. Our results suggest that the participants with better dexterous movement skills might display stronger somatosensory information suppression because of increasing the motor cortex activity and the afferent input during the BR task.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank all participants for taking part in this study.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate School of Health Sciences, Sapporo Medical University, South 1 West 17, Chuo-ku, Sapporo, Hokkaido, 060-8556, Japan

    Mayu Akaiwa & Yuya Matsuda

  2. Department of Rehabilitation, Kashiwaba Neurosurgical Hospital, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Yuta Soma

  3. Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Human Science, Hokkaido Bunkyo University, Eniwa, Hokkaido, Japan

    Eriko Shibata

  4. Department of Occupational Therapy, School of Health Science, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Hidekazu Saito

  5. Department of Physical Therapy, School of Health Science, Sapporo Medical University, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan

    Takeshi Sasaki & Kazuhiro Sugawara

Authors
  1. Mayu Akaiwa
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  2. Yuya Matsuda
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  3. Yuta Soma
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  4. Eriko Shibata
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  5. Hidekazu Saito
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  6. Takeshi Sasaki
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  7. Kazuhiro Sugawara
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Contributions

All authors contributed to the conception and design of the study. Material preparation and data collection were performed by MA, KS, YM, YS, and HS. Data analyses were performed by MA. The first draft of the manuscript was written by MA. The manuscript was edited by KS. All authors commented on earlier versions of the manuscript and read and approved the final version.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kazuhiro Sugawara.

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Conflict of interest

The author(s) declare no competing interests.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee [Sapporo Medical University (No. 2-1-91)] and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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All participants signed informed consent regarding publishing their data.

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Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Communicated by Winston D Byblow.

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Akaiwa, M., Matsuda, Y., Soma, Y. et al. The relationships between motor behavior and sensory gating in the ball rotation task. Exp Brain Res 240, 2659–2666 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06439-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-022-06439-y

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