Dynamic cortical participation during bilateral, cyclical ankle movements: Effects of Parkinson's disease

PLoS One. 2018 Apr 26;13(4):e0196177. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196177. eCollection 2018.

Abstract

Parkinson's disease (PD) is known to increase asymmetry and variability of bilateral movements. However, the mechanisms of such abnormalities are not fully understood. Here, we aimed to investigate whether kinematic abnormalities are related to cortical participation during bilateral, cyclical ankle movements, which required i) maintenance of a specific frequency and ii) bilateral coordination of the lower limbs in an anti-phasic manner. We analyzed electroencephalographic and electromyographic signals from nine men with PD and nine aged-matched healthy men while they sat and cyclically dorsi- and plantarflexed their feet. This movement was performed at a similar cadence to normal walking under two conditions: i) self-paced and ii) externally paced by a metronome. Participants with PD exhibited reduced range of motion and more variable bilateral coordination. However, participants with and without PD did not differ in the magnitude of corticomuscular coherence between the midline cortical areas and tibialis anterior and medial gastrocnemius muscles. This finding suggests that either the kinematic abnormalities were related to processes outside linear corticomuscular communication or PD-related changes in neural correlates maintained corticomuscular communication but not motor performance.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Ankle / physiology*
  • Biomechanical Phenomena / physiology
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Cognition / physiology
  • Electroencephalography
  • Electromyography
  • Humans
  • Levodopa / therapeutic use
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Motor Cortex / physiology*
  • Parkinson Disease / drug therapy
  • Parkinson Disease / physiopathology*
  • Range of Motion, Articular / physiology

Substances

  • Levodopa

Associated data

  • figshare/5766342

Grants and funding

TY was supported by the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute Student Scholarship from the University of Toronto (https://www.utoronto.ca/) and the CREATE Academic Rehabilitation Engineering Fellowship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (http://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/index_eng.asp). This work was partially supported by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CA) (http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/193.html) grants (MOP 15128, RC; OMH131582, KM). The authors also acknowledge the support from the Toronto Rehabilitation Institute – University Health Network (http://www.uhn.ca/TorontoRehab), Dean Connor and Maris Uffelmann Donation, and Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Discovery Grant (#249669, MRP). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.