Elsevier

Clinical Neurophysiology

Volume 110, Issue 1, January 1999, Pages 126-132
Clinical Neurophysiology

Cortical potentials preceding voluntary finger movement in patients with focal cerebellar lesion

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0168-5597(98)00052-5Get rights and content

Abstract

Objective: To elucidate influences of the dentate nucleus on the generation of the related cortical potentials (MRCPs) preceding voluntary movement, Bereitschaftspotential (BP) and negative slope (NS).

Design and methods: MRCPs preceding self-paced voluntary finger movement were recorded in 5 cases with localized cerebellar lesions due to stroke or tumor. Comparing 3 of them involving the dentate nucleus and 2 others sparing it, as judged from CT or MRI findings.

Results: BP and NS preceding voluntary finger movement ipsilateral to the lesion were absent or markedly reduced in amplitude in those 3 cases with the dentate nucleus lesion, whereas those negative components were present in the 2 cases with no evidence of dentate lesion.

Conclusion: The dentate nucleus has a facilitatory effect on the generation of BP and NS.

Introduction

Scalp-recorded movement-related cortical potentials (MRCPs) preceding the onset of voluntary unilateral finger movement in normal humans consists of the initial negative slope Bereitschaftspotential (BP) (Kornhuber and Deecke, 1965), and the negative slope (NS) (Shibasaki and Kato, 1980; Barrett et al., 1985). BP begins at about 2000 ms before the movement onset and shows symmetric and widespread distribution over the head. NS begins at 300–500 ms prior to the movement onset, and it is larger over the centro-parietal region, contra-lateral to the movement. BP is known to be generated from hand areas of the primary sensori-motor cortex (S1-M1) and supplementary motor areas (SMAs) both bilaterally, whereas NS is generated mainly from the contralateral S1-M1 and bilateral SMAs (Neshige et al., 1988; Ikeda et al., 1992).

The cerebellum was proposed to participate in the preparation of the S1-M1 and SMAs for the forthcoming movements through cerebro-ponto-dentato-thalamic connections (Allen and Tsukahara, 1974; Sasaki et al., 1979). It was reported that cerebellar lesions, especially those involving the dentate nucleus, result in loss or decreased amplitude of pre-motion negativity in primates (Sasaki et al., 1978, Sasaki et al., 1979; Tsujimoto et al., 1993) and humans (Shibasaki et al., 1978, Shibasaki et al., 1986; Ikeda et al., 1994; Wessel et al., 1994; Gerloff et al., 1996). In the present study therefore in order to investigate influences of the dentate nucleus on the generation of BP and NS, MRCPs in patients with cerebellar lesions due to stroke or tumor involving the dentate nucleus were compared to those not involving the dentate nucleus.

Section snippets

Patients

Five patients with localized cerebellar lesions due to stroke or tumor were studied (Table 1). The purpose of the experiment was explained to each subject beforehand and a written informed consent was obtained from each.

Results

The results of MRCPs and their relationship to clinical deficits, and cerebellar lesions as studied by CT scan or MRI, are summarized in Table 1.

Discussion

In the present study, the BP and NS were absent or markedly reduced in amplitude preceding voluntary movement of the middle finger ipsilateral to the cerebellar lesion in 3 (cases 1 to 3) out of the 5 cases.

In all those 3 cases, dentate nucleus was involved as judged from CT. By contrast, those potentials were present in the remaining 2 cases (cases 4 and 5), in whom dentate nucleus was either spared or only mildly (if at all) involved. These results are consistent with previous reports. Sasaki

Acknowledgements

This study was partly supported by Grants-in-Aid Scientific Research (A) 09308031 and (A) 08558083, and on Priority Areas 08279106 from the Japan Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture, and Research for the Future Program JSPS-RFTF 97L00201 from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

References (29)

  • K Wessel et al.

    Movement-related cortical potentials preceding sequential and goal-directed finger and arm movements in patients with cerebellar atrophy

    Electroenceph. clin. Neurophysiol.

    (1994)
  • G.I Allen et al.

    Cerebrocerebellar communication system

    Physiol. Rev.

    (1974)
  • R.R.M Batton et al.

    Fastigial efferent projections in the monkey: an autoradiographic study

    J. Comp. Neurol.

    (1977)
  • J Brinkman et al.

    Supplementary motor areas in the monkey: activity of neurons during performance of a learned motor task

    J. Neurophysiol.

    (1979)
  • Cited by (29)

    • Libet's legacy: A primer to the neuroscience of volition

      2024, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
    • Neurophysiology of cerebellar ataxias and gait disorders

      2023, Clinical Neurophysiology Practice
    • What Is the Readiness Potential?

      2021, Trends in Cognitive Sciences
    • Why neuroscience does not disprove free will

      2019, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
      Citation Excerpt :

      While the RP is normal in parietal patients judging the time of their movement (M-judgement) in a Libet task, it is poorly detectable in W-judgement trials (Sirigu et al., 2004). Similar results were obtained in patients with lesioned cerebellum (Kitamura et al., 1999). In several pathological conditions abnormal RP was measured: Parkinson, hemiparesis, dystonia, mirror movement (for detailed description see Shibasaki and Hallett, 2006).

    • Cortical activities associated with voluntary movements and involuntary movements

      2012, Clinical Neurophysiology
      Citation Excerpt :

      On one occasion in 1975, the author was recording MRCP associated with self-paced finger movement in a patient with progressive myoclonus epilepsy due to sialidase deficiency as a part of the electrophysiological study of myoclonus. At that time, the author was interested in the observation that BP was significantly small or even absent in patients with cerebellar lesion, especially in those with a lesion involving the cerebellar efferent pathway or dentato-thalamic tract (Shibasaki et al., 1978, 1986; Ikeda et al., 1994; Kitamura et al., 1999). While watching the data of on-line back averaging of EEG on the computer display, the author noticed a sharp biphasic waveform on the averaged EEG instead of a slow negative potential culminating in a steeper slope, which was expected to be seen towards the onset of voluntary movement.

    • The Bereitschaftspotential in essential tremor

      2010, Clinical Neurophysiology
      Citation Excerpt :

      Magnetic resonance spectroscopy studies supported this notion by showing a reduction of N-acetyl-l-aspartate, indicating neuronal cell loss, in the cerebellar hemispheres of patients with ET, which correlated with tremor severity (Louis et al., 2002; Pagan et al., 2003). Our finding of a widespread reduction in late BP amplitude in the ETIT patients as compared to the ETPT patients is consistent with several previous studies, which reported BP alterations in a variety of degenerative and acute lesion cerebellar disorders (Shibasaki et al., 1978, 1986; Ikeda et al., 1994; Kitamura et al., 1999; Lu et al., 2008). A dysfunctional cerebello-dentato-thalamo-cortical projection was supposed to be the most likely cause for the BP abnormalities (Shibasaki et al., 1986; Lu et al., 2008).

    View all citing articles on Scopus
    View full text