Combined assessment of attentional reserve and cognitive-motor effort under various levels of challenge with a dry EEG system.

A novel ERP approach was proposed to index variations in mental workload, particularly in attentional reserve, which is complementary to EEG spectral content thought to reflect mental effort. To our knowledge, no study has assessed mental effort and attentional reserve simultaneously in EEG gel-based and, importantly, dry systems, which are particularly well suited for real-world settings. Therefore, by systematically considering ERP, EEG spectral, and importantly the combination of both, this study examined if a small set of dry EEG electrodes could detect changes in both spectral and ERP metrics to assess the mental workload under various challenges with a similar fidelity to their gel-based counterparts in a laboratory setting. By employing both EEG gel-based and dry systems, the ERP and spectral markers were computed while participants executed a visuomotor task under three levels of challenge. For both EEG systems, more challenging levels of difficulty were associated with concomitant changes in ERP amplitude, and spectral power reflected a reduction of the attentional reserve and an increase in cognitive-motor effort, respectively. Those variations in attentional reserve and cognitive-motor effort collectively indexed mental workload with nearly identical fidelity for both gel-based and dry EEG systems. These findings promise to assess the mental workload in situations where the use of dry EEG systems could be advantageously employed to examine human cognitive-motor performance.

Sensorimotor integration: basic concepts, abnormalities related to movement disorders and sensorimotor training-induced cortical reorganization.

INTRODUCTION: Sensorimotor integration is defined as the capability of the central nervous system to integrate different sources of stimuli, and parallelly, to transform such inputs in motor actions. AIM: To review the basic principles of sensorimotor integration, such as, its neural bases and its elementary mechanisms involved in specific goal-directed tasks performed by healthy subjects, and the abnormalities reported in the most common movement disorders, such as, Parkinson' disease, dystonia and stroke, like the cortical reorganization-related mechanisms. DEVELOPMENT AND CONCLUSIONS: Whether these disorders are associated with an abnormal peripheral sensory input or defective central processing is still unclear, but most of the data support a central mechanism. We found that the sensorimotor integration process plays a potential role in elementary mechanisms involved in specific goal-directed tasks performed by healthy subjects and in occurrence of abnormalities in most common movement disorders and, moreover, play a potential role on the acquisition of abilities that have as critical factor the coupling of different sensory data which will constitute the basis of elaboration of motor outputs consciously goal-directed.

Integración sensitivomotora: conceptos básicos, anomalías relacionadas con trastornos del movimiento y reorganización cortical inducida por el entrenamiento sensitivomotor / Sensorimotor integration: basic concepts, abnormalities related to movement disorders and sensorimotor training-induced cortical reorganization

Introducción. La integración sensitivomotora se define como la capacidad del sistema nervioso central para integrar diferentes fuentes de estímulos y, paralelamente, transformar dichas entradas en acciones motoras. Objetivos. Revisar los principios básicos de la integración sensitivomotora, como sus bases neuronales y sus mecanismos elementales implicados en tareas orientadas hacia la consecución de objetivos específicos realizadas por sujetos sanos, y las anomalías descritas en los trastornos del movimiento más frecuentes, como la enfermedad de Parkinson, la distonía y el accidente cerebrovascular, además de los mecanismos relacionados con la reorganización cortical. Desarrollo y conclusiones. Todavía no está claro si estos trastornos se asocian a una entrada sensitiva periférica anormal o a un procesamiento central defectuoso, pero la mayoría de datos respaldan un mecanismo central. Nuestros resultados muestran que el proceso de integración sensitivomotora desempeña un posible papel en los mecanismos elementales implicados en tareas orientadas hacia la consecución de objetivos específicos realizadas por sujetos sanos y en la aparición de anomalías en la mayoría de trastornos del movimiento más frecuentes; asimismo, desempeña un posible papel en la adquisición de habilidades que tienen como factor crítico el acoplamiento de diferentes datos sensitivos que constituirán la base de elaboración de entradas motoras orientadas conscientemente hacia la consecución de objetivos (AU)

Introduction. Sensorimotor integration is defined as the capability of the central nervous system to integrate different sources of stimuli, and parallelly, to transform such inputs in motor actions. Aim. To review the basic principles of sensorimotor integration, such as, its neural bases and its elementary mechanisms involved in specific goal-directed tasks performed by healthy subjects, and the abnormalities reported in the most common movement disorders, such as, Parkinson’ disease, dystonia and stroke, like the cortical reorganization-related mechanisms. Development and conclusions. Whether these disorders are associated with an abnormal peripheral sensory input or defective central processing is still unclear, but most of the data support a central mechanism. We found that the sensorimotor integration process plays a potential role in elementary mechanisms involved in specific goal-directed tasks performed by healthy subjects and in occurrence of abnormalities in most common movement disorders and, moreover, play a potential role on the acquisition of abilities that have as critical factor the coupling of different sensory data which will constitute the basis of elaboration of motor outputs consciously goal-directed (AU)