title: Sensorimotor synchronization: neurophysiological markers of the asynchrony in a finger-tapping task.
abstract: Sensorimotor synchronization (SMS) is a form of referential behavior in which an action is coordinated with a predictable external stimulus. The neural bases of the synchronization ability remain unknown, even in the simpler, paradigmatic task of finger tapping to a metronome. In this task the subject is instructed to tap in synchrony with a periodic sequence of brief tones, and the time difference between each response and the corresponding stimulus tone (asynchrony) is recorded. We make a step towards the identification of the neurophysiological markers of SMS by recording high-density EEG event-related potentials and the concurrent behavioral response-stimulus asynchronies during an isochronous paced finger-tapping task. Using principal component analysis, we found an asymmetry between the traces for advanced and delayed responses to the stimulus, in accordance with previous behavioral observations from perturbation studies. We also found that the amplitude of the second component encodes the higher-level percept of asynchrony 100 ms after the current stimulus. Furthermore, its amplitude predicts the asynchrony of the next step, past 300 ms from the previous stimulus, independently of the period length. Moreover, the neurophysiological processing of synchronization errors is performed within a fixed-duration interval after the stimulus. Our results suggest that the correction of a large asynchrony in a periodic task and the recovery of synchrony after a perturbation could be driven by similar neural processes.
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, FCEyN, UBA and IFIBA-CONICET, Pabellón 1, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, 1428, Argentina. luzbavassi@gmail.com.|Laboratorio de Neurobiología de la Memoria, Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, FCEyN, UBA and IFIBYNE-CONICET, Buenos Aires, Argentina. luzbavassi@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Luz
authors.identifier: http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7839-3973
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bavassi
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, FCEyN, UBA and IFIBA-CONICET, Pabellón 1, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, 1428, Argentina.|Laboratorio de Inteligencia Artificial Aplicada, Departamento de Computación, FCEyN, UBA, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Juan E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Kamienkowski
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Física, FCEyN, UBA and IFIBA-CONICET, Pabellón 1, Ciudad Universitaria, Buenos Aires, 1428, Argentina.|Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Almirante Juan Saenz Valiente 1010, Buenos Aires, C1428BIJ, Argentina.
authors.forename: Mariano
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sigman
authors.affiliation: Departamento de Ciencia y Tecnología, Universidad Nacional de Quilmes, Argentina, and CONICET Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
authors.forename: Rodrigo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Laje
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D005071:Evoked Potentials / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D005385:Fingers / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D011597:Psychomotor Performance / Q000502:physiology*; D011930:Reaction Time / Q000502:physiology; D055815:Young Adult