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Callosotomy patients exhibit temporal uncoupling during continuous bimanual movements

Nature Neuroscience volume 5, pages 376–381 (2002)Cite this article

Abstract

Rhythmic bimanual movements are highly constrained in the temporal domain, with the gestures of the two hands tightly synchronized. Previous studies have implicated a subcortical locus for temporal coupling based on the observation that these constraints persist in callosotomy patients. We now report that such coupling is restricted to movements entailing a discrete event (such as a movement onset). Three callosotomy patients exhibited a striking lack of temporal coupling during continuous movements, with the two hands oscillating at non-identical frequencies. We propose a subcortical locus of temporal coupling for movements involving discrete events. In contrast, synchronization between the hands during continuous movements depends on interhemispheric transmission across the corpus callosum.

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Figure 1: Temporal uncoupling during a single trial of symmetric, maximum rate circling in a patient.
Figure 2: Callosotomy patients exhibit a large difference in cycling rate between the two hands.
Figure 3: Increase in instability during asymmetric circling at maximum rate is only found in performance of control participants.
Figure 4: Increased dispersion of relative phase in a patient.
Figure 5: Summary of relative phase variability for controls and callosotomy patients.
Figure 6: Dissociation of temporal coupling during continuous and discrete movements in a modified tapping experiment.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by NIH grants P50 NS17778 and R01 NS30256. The authors are grateful to Noam Sobel, Bekki Spencer and Howard Zelaznik for their comments on this manuscript and to Paul Corballis for his assistance with the data collection.

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Author notes

  1. Steven W. Kennerley and Jörn Diedrichsen: The first two authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of California, 3210 Tolman Hall #1650, Berkeley, Berkeley, 94720, California, USA

    Steven W. Kennerley, Jörn Diedrichsen & Richard B. Ivry

  2. NASA Ames Research Center, Mail Stop 262-4, Moffett Field, 94035, California, USA

    Eliot Hazeltine

  3. Centre de Recherche en Neurosciences Cognitives, CNRS, 31 Chemin Joseph Aiguier, Marseille, Cedex 20, 13402, France

    Andras Semjen

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Correspondence to Richard B. Ivry.

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Kennerley, S., Diedrichsen, J., Hazeltine, E. et al. Callosotomy patients exhibit temporal uncoupling during continuous bimanual movements. Nat Neurosci 5, 376–381 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn822

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