An investigation on the association of cognitive information processing within the process of perceptual-motor process by analyzing the cortical root of perceptual information transmission

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For understanding the mechanism of achieving a given motor task goal, it is critical to know how perceptual information plays a role in the process of organizing a movement. The present study investigated two perceptual-motor tasks: 1) reaching to a visual target and grasping it with a pinch grip, and 2) estimating the size of the visual target and producing the estimated size with the aperture of a pinch grip. These task movements were produced with respect to a simple circular object as well as to the same circular object surrounded by other five circles, which induces the Ebbinghaus illusion, and thereby the association of cognitive information processing with the visuo-motor organization process was examined. To this end, EEG was used to analyze the cortical activation pattern during the task execution. Ten participants volunteered and performed the reaching-grasping and the matching tasks, and their cortical activities were recoded by a 64-channel EEG recording system together wit … More h the joint excursions of the pinch grip motion by a Goniometer. The frequency domain of EEG was analyzed in terms of event-related synchronization or desynchronization (ERS/ERD), which are regarded as the cortical excitation and deactivation/inhibition respectively. For both of the two perceptual-motor tasks, the same 'finger joint motion was produced with respect t to the same visual stimulus of the target object. This was reflected by ERS observed in the cortical sites (the visual area and the somatosensory-motor areas), which associate with processing visual information and producing movements. Furthermore, ERS in the occipito-parietal area was observed in the reaching-grasping task. According to the hypothesis of the two visual streams, the dorsal and the ventral streams, cognitive information processing about estimating the size of the target object was involved in the execution of the matching task as opposed to the reaching-grasping task. Therefore the ERS in the reaching-grasping task imply the cortical process of inhibiting information processing associated with the cognitive activity. The findings in the present study was reported at the international conference in the field of motor control in Santos, Brazil, held in August, 2007, and the paper was submitted to an international journal on studies on motor control and EEG. Less