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Article

The Dominance of Anticipatory Prefrontal Activity in Uncued Sensory–Motor Tasks

1
Department of Movement, Human and Health Sciences, University of Rome “Foro Italico”, 00135 Rome, Italy
2
Department of Psychology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 00185 Rome, Italy
3
Santa Lucia Foundation IRCCS, 00179 Rome, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sensors 2022, 22(17), 6559; https://doi.org/10.3390/s22176559
Submission received: 7 July 2022 / Revised: 25 August 2022 / Accepted: 28 August 2022 / Published: 31 August 2022
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Real-Life Wearable EEG-Based BCI: Open Challenges)

Abstract

Anticipatory event-related potentials (ERPs) precede upcoming events such as stimuli or actions. These ERPs are usually obtained in cued sensory–motor tasks employing a warning stimulus that precedes a probe stimulus as in the contingent negative variation (CNV) paradigms. The CNV wave has been widely studied, from clinical to brain–computer interface (BCI) applications, and has been shown to emerge in medial frontoparietal areas, localized in the cingulate and supplementary motor areas. Several dated studies also suggest the existence of a prefrontal CNV, although this component was not confirmed by later studies due to the contamination of ocular artifacts. Another lesser-known anticipatory ERP is the prefrontal negativity (pN) that precedes the uncued probe stimuli in discriminative response tasks and has been localized in the inferior frontal gyrus. This study aimed to characterize the pN by comparing it with the CNV in cued and uncued tasks and test if the pN could be associated with event preparation, temporal preparation, or both. To achieve these aims, high-density electroencephalographic recording and advanced ERP analysis controlling for ocular activity were obtained in 25 volunteers who performed 4 different visuomotor tasks. Our results showed that the pN amplitude was largest in the condition requiring both time and event preparation, medium in the condition requiring event preparation only, and smallest in the condition requiring temporal preparation only. We concluded that the prefrontal CNV could be associated with the pN, and this activity emerges in complex tasks requiring the anticipation of both the category and timing of the upcoming stimulus. The proposed method can be useful in BCI studies investigating the endogenous neural signatures triggered by different sensorimotor paradigms.
Keywords: ERP; CNV; pN; task preparation ERP; CNV; pN; task preparation

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MDPI and ACS Style

Aydin, M.; Carpenelli, A.L.; Lucia, S.; Di Russo, F. The Dominance of Anticipatory Prefrontal Activity in Uncued Sensory–Motor Tasks. Sensors 2022, 22, 6559. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22176559

AMA Style

Aydin M, Carpenelli AL, Lucia S, Di Russo F. The Dominance of Anticipatory Prefrontal Activity in Uncued Sensory–Motor Tasks. Sensors. 2022; 22(17):6559. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22176559

Chicago/Turabian Style

Aydin, Merve, Anna Laura Carpenelli, Stefania Lucia, and Francesco Di Russo. 2022. "The Dominance of Anticipatory Prefrontal Activity in Uncued Sensory–Motor Tasks" Sensors 22, no. 17: 6559. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22176559

APA Style

Aydin, M., Carpenelli, A. L., Lucia, S., & Di Russo, F. (2022). The Dominance of Anticipatory Prefrontal Activity in Uncued Sensory–Motor Tasks. Sensors, 22(17), 6559. https://doi.org/10.3390/s22176559

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