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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 554/3/871    most recent jphysiol.2003.051235v1 Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Pollok, B. Articles by Schnitzler, A. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Pollok, B. Articles by Schnitzler, A.

Department of Neurology, Heinrich-Heine University, Duesseldorf, Germany

It has recently been shown that resting tremor in Parkinson's disease is associated with oscillatory neural coupling in an extensive cerebral network comprising a cerebello–diencephalic–cortical loop and cortical motor, somatosensory and posterior parietal areas contralateral to the tremor hand. The aim of the present study was to investigate whether this oscillatory brain network exclusively reflects a pathophysiological state in parkinsonian resting tremor or whether it constitutes a fundamental feature of physiological motor control. We investigated cerebro-muscular and cerebro-cerebral coupling in 11 healthy subjects imitating typical antagonistic parkinsonian tremor. We recorded brain activity with a 122-channel whole-head neuromagnetometer and surface EMGs of the forearm extensor. Analysis of cerebro-muscular and cerebro-cerebral coherence revealed oscillatory coupling in the same brain structures that comprise the oscillatory network of parkinsonian resting tremor. Interestingly, similar to parkinsonian resting tremor, cerebro-cerebral coherences often showed a significant peak at twice the simulated tremor frequency. The most striking differences between parkinsonian patients, as investigated in a previous study and healthy subjects imitating the antagonistic resting tremor were a reduction of the coupling between primary sensorimotor cortex and a diencephalic structure – most likely the thalamus – and an enhancement of the coupling between premotor and primary sensorimotor cortex. Our results indicate that the coupling of oscillatory activity within a cerebello–diencephalic–cortical loop constitutes a basic feature of physiological motor control. Thus, our data are consistent with the hypothesis that parkinsonian resting tremor involves oscillatory cerebro-cerebral coupling in a physiologically pre-existing network.

(Received 14 July 2003; accepted after revision 21 November 2003; first published online 28 November 2003)
Corresponding author A. Schnitzler: Department of Neurology, Heinrich-Heine University, Moorenstr. 5, 40225 Duesseldorf, Germany. Email: schnitza{at}uni-duesseldorf.de

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