Motor programming of finger sequences of different complexity.
In a response precuing task, we used behavioral and electrophysiological measures - Contingent Negative Variation (CNV) and the readiness potential (RP) - to investigate the programming of three-element response sequences of different complexity. Precuing effects on foreperiod CNV and RT indicated the use of advance information about response hand and response sequence. Crucially, with advance information about both hand and sequence, heterogeneous response sequences (e.g., 1→2→2) elicited larger foreperiod CNV activity over medial motor areas than homogeneous response sequences (e.g., 1→2→3), whereas CNV activity over lateral motor areas was not influenced by sequence complexity. It was only before response execution that lateral but not medial RP activity was stronger for heterogeneous than homogeneous response sequences. Both behavioral and electrophysiological measures indicated finger-order dependent influences on the duration of on-line response programming during response execution.
Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Department of Psychology, University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK. hartmut.leuthold@uni-tuebingen.de
Hartmut
H
Leuthold
Hannes
H
Schröter
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001931:Brain Mapping; D003265:Contingent Negative Variation / Q000502:physiology*; D004569:Electroencephalography / Q000379:methods; D056344:Executive Function / Q000502:physiology; D005385:Fingers / Q000294:innervation*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult