Event-Related Brain Potentials for Goal-Related Power Grips |
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Authors: | Jan Westerholz Thomas Schack Dirk Koester |
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Institution: | 1. Center of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC), Bielefeld, Germany.; 2. Neurocognition and Action Research Group, Faculty of Psychology and Sports Sciences, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany.; 3. Research Institute for Cognition and Robotics (CoR-Lab), Bielefeld, Germany.; University of Plymouth, United Kingdom, |
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Abstract: | Recent research has shown that neurophysiological activation during action planning depends on the orientation to initial or final action goals for precision grips. However, the neural signature for a distinct class of grasping, power grips, is still unknown. The aim of the present study was to differentiate between cerebral activity, by means of event-related potentials (ERPs), and its temporal organization during power grips executed with an emphasis on either the initial or final parts of movement sequences. In a grasp and transportation task, visual cues emphasized either the grip (the immediate goal) or the target location (the final goal). ERPs differed between immediate and final goal-cued conditions, suggesting different means of operation dependent on goal-relatedness. Differences in mean amplitude occurred earlier for power grips than for recently reported precision grips time-locked to grasping over parieto-occipital areas. Time-locked to final object placement, differences occurred within a similar time window for power and precision grips over frontal areas. These results suggest that a parieto-frontal network of activation is of crucial importance for grasp planning and execution. Our results indicate that power grip preparation and execution for goal-related actions are controlled by similar neural mechanisms as have been observed during precision grips, but with a distinct temporal pattern. |
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