title: Motor-Evoked Potentials in the Lower Back Are Modulated by Visual Perception of Lifted Weight.
abstract: Facilitation of the primary motor cortex (M1) during the mere observation of an action is highly congruent with the observed action itself. This congruency comprises several features of the executed action such as somatotopy and temporal coding. Studies using reach-grasp-lift paradigms showed that the muscle-specific facilitation of the observer's motor system reflects the degree of grip force exerted in an observed hand action. The weight judgment of a lifted object during action observation is an easy task which is the case for hand actions as well as for lifting boxes from the ground. Here we investigated whether the cortical representation in M1 for lumbar back muscles is modulated due to the observation of a whole-body lifting movement as it was shown for hand action. We used transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) to measure the corticospinal excitability of the m. erector spinae (ES) while subjects visually observed the recorded sequences of a person lifting boxes of different weights from the floor. Consistent with the results regarding hand action the present study reveals a differential modulation of corticospinal excitability despite the relatively small M1 representation of the back also for lifting actions that mainly involve the lower back musculature.
authors.affiliation: University Children's Hospital Basle, Basle, Switzerland.|Research Department, Reha Rheinfelden, Rheinfelden, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Behrendt
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Marc H E
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: de Lussanet
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Münster, Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zentgraf
authors.affiliation: Institute of Sport Science, Department of Kinesiology, University of Rostock, Rostock, Germany.
authors.forename: Volker R
authors.initials: VR
authors.lastname: Zschorlich
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001415:Back; D004576:Electromyography; D019054:Evoked Potentials, Motor; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009044:Motor Cortex / Q000502:physiology; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D050781:Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation; D014796:Visual Perception; D014891:Weight Lifting; D055815:Young Adult