title: Frontal Functional Connectivity of Electrocorticographic Delta and Theta Rhythms during Action Execution Versus Action Observation in Humans.
abstract: We have previously shown that in seven drug-resistant epilepsy patients, both reaching-grasping of objects and the mere observation of those actions did desynchronize subdural electrocorticographic (ECoG) alpha (8-13 Hz) and beta (14-30) rhythms as a sign of cortical activation in primary somatosensory-motor, lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas (Babiloni et al., 2016a). Furthermore, that desynchronization was greater during action execution than during its observation. In the present exploratory study, we reanalyzed those ECoG data to evaluate the proof-of-concept that lagged linear connectivity (LLC) between primary somatosensory-motor, lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas would be enhanced during the action execution compared to the mere observation due to a greater flow of visual and somatomotor information. Results showed that the delta-theta (<8 Hz) LLC between lateral premotor and ventral prefrontal areas was higher during action execution than during action observation. Furthermore, the phase of these delta-theta rhythms entrained the local event-related connectivity of alpha and beta rhythms. It was speculated the existence of a multi-oscillatory functional network between high-order frontal motor areas which should be more involved during the actual reaching-grasping of objects compared to its mere observation. Future studies in a larger population should cross-validate these preliminary results.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Rome "La Sapienza"Rome, Italy; IRCCS S. Raffaele PisanaRome, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Babiloni
authors.affiliation: IRCCS SDN Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Del Percio
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Rome "La Sapienza" Rome, Italy.
authors.forename: Susanna
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lopez
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Neuromed Pozzilli (IS), Italy.
authors.forename: Giancarlo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Di Gennaro
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Neuromed Pozzilli (IS), Italy.
authors.forename: Pier P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Quarato
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Neuromed Pozzilli (IS), Italy.
authors.forename: Luigi
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Pavone
authors.affiliation: IRCCS Neuromed Pozzilli (IS), Italy.
authors.forename: Roberta
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Morace
authors.affiliation: IRCCS SDNNaples, Italy; Department of Motor Sciences and Healthiness, University of Naples ParthenopeNaples, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Soricelli
authors.affiliation: IRCCS SDN Naples, Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Noce
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Rome "La Sapienza"Rome, Italy; IRCCS NeuromedPozzilli (IS), Italy.
authors.forename: Vincenzo
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Esposito
authors.affiliation: Department of Neuroscience, University of Parma Parma, Italy.
authors.forename: Vittorio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gallese
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Rome "La Sapienza"Rome, Italy; IRCCS NeuromedPozzilli (IS), Italy.
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mirabella
keywords: exact low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (eLORETA); frontal cortex; lagged linear connectivity; mirror neuron system; movement execution; movement observation; subdural electrocorticography (ECoG)