Event-Related Potentials during a Finger Tapping Task

BAVASSI, L; KAMIENKOWSKI JE; SIGMAN M; LAJE, R

Huerta Grande, Córdoba

Congreso; 2da Reunión Conjuta Argentina de Neurociencias (XI Taller Argentino de Neurociencias y XXV Reunión de la Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias); 2010

Sociedad Argentina de Neurociencias

Finger tapping to a metronome is a paradigmatic task in sensorimotorsynchronization, the specifically human ability to entrain movement to anexternal periodic stimulus. In this task the subject is instructed to tap insynchrony with a periodic sequence of brief tones, and the time difference(asynchrony) between each stimulus and its corresponding response isrecorded. Despite being a very simple, spontaneous, and robust behavior inhumans, finger tapping involves the superposition of several distinct systemslike time perception, comparison, error correction and motor execution. With theaim of disentangling these overlapped contributions, we recorded high-densityEEG event-related potentials and the concurrent behavioral asynchronies duringa finger tapping task. We have found a) high bilateral activation in fronto-centralsources around 200 ms before tapping; b) lower levels of activity in motor cortexbut correlated with the observed asynchronies; and c) a fronto-central mismatchnegativity after large asynchronies.