title: Rhythmic oscillations of visual contrast sensitivity synchronized with action.
abstract: It is well known that the motor and the sensory systems structure sensory data collection and cooperate to achieve an efficient integration and exchange of information. Increasing evidence suggests that both motor and sensory functions are regulated by rhythmic processes reflecting alternating states of neuronal excitability, and these may be involved in mediating sensory-motor interactions. Here we show an oscillatory fluctuation in early visual processing time locked with the execution of voluntary action, and, crucially, even for visual stimuli irrelevant to the motor task. Human participants were asked to perform a reaching movement toward a display and judge the orientation of a Gabor patch, near contrast threshold, briefly presented at random times before and during the reaching movement. When the data are temporally aligned to the onset of movement, visual contrast sensitivity oscillates with periodicity within the theta band. Importantly, the oscillations emerge during the motor planning stage, ∼500 ms before movement onset. We suggest that brain oscillatory dynamics may mediate an automatic coupling between early motor planning and early visual processing, possibly instrumental in linking and closing up the visual-motor control loop.
authors.affiliation: Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy, alice.tomassini@iit.it.
authors.forename: Alice
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tomassini
authors.affiliation: Department of Human Movement, Social and Health Sciences, Foro Italico University of Rome, 00135 Roma, Italy.
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Spinelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jacono
authors.affiliation: Department of Robotics, Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, 16163 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Giulio
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3324-985X
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Sandini
authors.affiliation: Department of Translational Research on New Technologies in Medicine and Surgery, University of Pisa, 56126 Pisa, Italy, and Scientific Institute Stella Maris, 56128 Pisa, Italy.
authors.forename: Maria Concetta
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Morrone
mesh_terms: D000161:Acoustic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D015350:Contrast Sensitivity / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D018737:Hand Strength / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009068:Movement / Q000502:physiology*; D010507:Periodicity; D010775:Photic Stimulation / Q000379:methods; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology
keywords: action; brain oscillations; phase locking; sensory-motor; vision