Activation of the brain during motor imagination task with auditory stimulation

Long Li; Yanlong Zhang; Liming Fan; Jie Zhao; Jing Guo; Chenxi Li; Jue Wang; Tian Liu

doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.1130685

Activation of the brain during motor imagination task with auditory stimulation

Front Neurosci. 2023 Mar 15:17:1130685. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.1130685. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Long Li^{1

2}, Yanlong Zhang², Liming Fan^{1

2}, Jie Zhao^{1

2}, Jing Guo^{1

2}, Chenxi Li^{1

2}, Jue Wang^{1

2}, Tian Liu^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an, China.
² Key Laboratory for Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Neuroscience of Language, Xi'an International Studies University, Xi'an, Shaanxi, China.

Abstract

Introduction: Auditory stimulation is one of the most important influence factors in the cognitive process. It is an important guiding role in cognitive motor process. However, previous studies on auditory stimuli mainly focused on the cognitive effects of auditory stimuli on the cortex, while the role of auditory stimuli in motor imagery tasks is still unclear.

Methods: In order to explore the role of auditory stimuli in motor imagery tasks, we studied the EEG power spectrum distribution characteristics, frontal parietal mismatch negative (MMN) wave characteristics, and the Inter trial phase locking consistency (ITPC) characteristics of the prefrontal cognitive cortex and parietal motor cortex. In this study, 18 subjects were hired to complete the motor imagery tasks, induced by auditory stimuli of task related verbs and task independent nouns.

Results: EEG power spectrum analysis showed that the activity of the contralateral motor cortex was significantly increased under the stimulation of verbs, and the amplitude of mismatch negative wave was also significantly increased. ITPC is mainly concentrated in μ, α, and γ bands in the process of motor imagery task guided by the auditory stimulus of verbs, while it is mainly concentrated in the β band under the nouns stimulation. This difference may be due to the impact of auditory cognitive process on motor imagery.

Discussion: We speculate that there may be a more complex mechanism for the effect of auditory stimulation on the inter test phase lock consistency. When the stimulus sound has the corresponding meaning to the motor action, the parietal motor cortex may be more affected by the cognitive prefrontal cortex, thus changing its normal response mode. This mode change is due to the joint action of motor imagination, cognitive and auditory stimuli. This study provides new insight into the neural mechanism of motor imagery task guided by auditory stimuli, and provides more information on the activity characteristics of the brain network in motor imagery task by cognitive auditory stimulation.

Keywords: EEG; auditory stimulation feedback; inter trial phase locking consistency (ITPC); mismatch negative (MMN); motor imagery (MI).

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant nos. U1913216 and 61431012) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (nos. 2017YFB1300303 and 2018YFC2002601).