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

• Published in: PloS one 2018-04, Vol.13 (4), p.e0196177-e0196177
• Main Authors: Yoshida, Takashi, Masani, Kei, Zabjek, Karl, Popovic, Milos R, Chen, Robert
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abnormalities; Ankle; Asymmetry; Biology and Life Sciences; Biomedical engineering; Biomedical materials; Communication; Complications and side effects; Coordination; Cortex; Demographic aspects; Dopamine; EEG; Electromyography; Engineering; Engineering and Technology; Health care networks; Kinematics; Laboratories; Medicine and Health Sciences; Motor skills; Motor task performance; Movement (Physiology); Movement disorders; Muscles; Neurodegenerative diseases; Parkinson disease; Parkinson's disease; Patient outcomes; Physical Sciences; Physiological aspects; Rehabilitation; Research and Analysis Methods; Skeletal muscle; Stroke; Walking
• ISSN: 1932-6203; 1932-6203
• DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0196177

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.