Hierarchy, sequence, function: a contribution to the architecture of the human neurocognitive system

Koester D. Hierarchy, sequence, function: a contribution to the architecture of the human neurocognitive system. Bielefeld: Universität Bielefeld; 2016.The present work aims to contribute evidence to further our understanding of the human neurocognitive system by testing for interactions or sharing of resources among cognitive domains. To this end, several methods were employed and various variables were analysed. Following an action-centred and modular approach to the cognitive system in accordance with the ideomotor framework, I pursued the hypotheses that there are functional interactions among (some) cognitive domains and that hierarchical processing might be characteristic of multiple (if not all) domains

Action Priority: Early Neurophysiological Interaction of Conceptual and Motor Representations

Koester D, Schack T. Action Priority: Early Neurophysiological Interaction of Conceptual and Motor Representations. PLOS ONE. 2016;11(12): e0165882.Handling our everyday life, we often react manually to verbal requests or instruction, but the functional interrelations of motor control and language are not fully understood yet, especially their neurophysiological basis. Here, we investigated whether specific motor representations for grip types interact neurophysiologically with conceptual information, that is, when reading nouns. Participants performed lexical decisions and, for words, executed a grasp-and-lift task on objects of different sizes involving precision or power grips while the electroencephalogram was recorded. Nouns could denote objects that require either a precision or a power grip and could, thus, be (in)congruent with the performed grasp. In a control block, participants pointed at the objects instead of grasping them. The main result revealed an event-related potential (ERP) interaction of grip type and conceptual information which was not present for pointing. Incongruent compared to congruent conditions elicited an increased positivity (100–200 ms after noun onset). Grip type effects were obtained in response-locked analyses of the grasping ERPs (100–300 ms at left anterior electrodes). These findings attest that grip type and conceptual information are functionally related when planning a grasping action but such an interaction could not be detected for pointing. Generally, the results suggest that control of behaviour can be modulated by task demands; conceptual noun information (i.e., associated action knowledge) may gain processing priority if the task requires a complex motor response. Data basis is available under: http://dx.doi.org/10.4119/unibi/290658

Action Priority: Early Neurophysiological Interaction of Conceptual and Motor Representations

Koester D, Schack T. Action Priority: Early Neurophysiological Interaction of Conceptual and Motor Representations. PLOS ONE. 2016;11(12): e0165882.Handling our everyday life, we often react manually to verbal requests or instruction, but the functional interrelations of motor control and language are not fully understood yet, especially their neurophysiological basis. Here, we investigated whether specific motor representations for grip types interact neurophysiologically with conceptual information, that is, when reading nouns. Participants performed lexical decisions and, for words, executed a grasp-and-lift task on objects of different sizes involving precision or power grips while the electroencephalogram was recorded. Nouns could denote objects that require either a precision or a power grip and could, thus, be (in)congruent with the performed grasp. In a control block, participants pointed at the objects instead of grasping them. The main result revealed an event-related potential (ERP) interaction of grip type and conceptual information which was not present for pointing. Incongruent compared to congruent conditions elicited an increased positivity (100–200 ms after noun onset). Grip type effects were obtained in response-locked analyses of the grasping ERPs (100–300 ms at left anterior electrodes). These findings attest that grip type and conceptual information are functionally related when planning a grasping action but such an interaction could not be detected for pointing. Generally, the results suggest that control of behaviour can be modulated by task demands; conceptual noun information (i.e., associated action knowledge) may gain processing priority if the task requires a complex motor response. Data basis is available under: http://dx.doi.org/10.4119/unibi/290658

Neurophysiology of grasping actions: Evidence from ERPs

Koester D, Schack T, Westerholz J. Neurophysiology of grasping actions: Evidence from ERPs. Frontiers in Psychology. 2016;7: 1996.We use our hands very frequently to interact with our environment. Neuropsychology together with lesion models and intracranial recordings and imaging work yielded important insights into the functional neuroanatomical correlates of grasping, one important function of our hands, pointing toward a functional parietofrontal brain network. Event-related potentials (ERPs) register directly electrical brain activity and are endowed with high temporal resolution but have long been assumed to be susceptible to movement artifacts. Recent work has shown that reliable ERPs can be obtained during movement execution. Here, we review the available ERP work on (uni) manual grasping actions. We discuss various ERP components and how they may be related to functional components of grasping according to traditional distinctions of manual actions such as planning and control phases. The ERP results are largely in line with the assumption of a parietofrontal network. But other questions remain, in particular regarding the temporal succession of frontal and parietal ERP effects. With the low number of ERP studies on grasping, not all ERP effects appear to be coherent with one another. Understanding the control of our hands may help to develop further neurocognitive theories of grasping and to make progress in prosthetics, rehabilitation or development of technical systems for support of human actions. Full text freely available under: https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.0199

Movement Interferes with Visuospatial Working Memory during the Encoding: An ERP Study

Gündüz Can R, Schack T, Koester D. Movement Interferes with Visuospatial Working Memory during the Encoding: An ERP Study. Frontiers in Psychology. 2017;8(871): 1-16.The present study focuses on the functional interactions of cognition and manual action control. Particularly, we investigated the neurophysiological correlates of the dual-task costs of a manual-motor task (requiring grasping an object, holding it, and subsequently placing it on a target) for working memory (WM) domains (verbal and visuospatial) and processes (encoding and retrieval). Thirty participants were tested in a cognitive-motor dual-task paradigm, in which a single block (a verbal or visuospatial WM task) was compared with a dual block (concurrent performance of a WM task and a motor task). Event-related potentials (ERPs) were analyzed separately for the encoding and retrieval processes of verbal and visuospatial WM domains both in single and dual blocks. The behavioral analyses show that the motor task interfered with WM and decreased the memory performance. The performance decrease was larger for the visuospatial task compared with the verbal task, i.e., domain-specific memory costs were obtained. The ERP analyses show the domain-specific interference also at the neurophysiological level, which is further process-specific to encoding. That is, comparing the patterns of WM-related ERPs in the single block and dual block, we showed that visuospatial ERPs changed only for the encoding process when a motor task was performed at the same time. Generally, the present study provides evidence for domain- and process-specific interactions of a prepared manual-motor movement with WM (visuospatial domain during the encoding process). This study, therefore, provides an initial neurophysiological characterization of functional interactions of WM and manual actions in a cognitive-motor dual-task setting, and contributes to a better understanding of the neuro-cognitive mechanisms of motor action control

Mental representation and motor imagery training

Schack T, Essig K, Frank C, Koester D. Mental representation and motor imagery training. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. 2014;8(328):1-10.Research in sports, dance and rehabilitation has shown that basic action concepts (BACs) are fundamental building blocks of mental action representations. BACs are based on chunked body postures related to common functions for realizing action goals. In this paper, we outline issues in research methodology and an experimental method, the structural dimensional analysis of mental representation (SDA-M), to assess action-relevant representational structures that reflect the organization of BACs. The SDA-M reveals a strong relationship between cognitive representation and performance if complex actions are performed. We show how the SDA-M can improve motor imagery training and how it contributes to our understanding of coaching processes. The SDA-M capitalizes on the objective measurement of individual mental movement representations before training and the integration of these results into the motor imagery training. Such motor imagery training based on mental representations (MTMR) has been applied successfully in professional sports such as golf, volleyball, gymnastics, windsurfing, and recently in the rehabilitation of patients who have suffered a stroke

Expertise affects representation structure and categorical activation of grasp postures in climbing

Bläsing B, Güldenpenning I, Koester D, Schack T. Expertise affects representation structure and categorical activation of grasp postures in climbing. Frontiers in Psychology. 2014;5:1008.In indoor rock climbing, the perception of object properties and the adequate execution of grasping actions highly determine climbers' performance. In two consecutive experiments, effects of climbing expertise on the cognitive activation of grasping actions following the presentation of climbing holds was investigated. Experiment 1 evaluated the representation of climbing holds in the long-term memory of climbers and non-climbers with the help of a psychometric measurement method. Within a hierarchical splitting procedure subjects had to decide about the similarity of required grasping postures. For the group of climbers, representation structures corresponded clearly to four grip types. In the group of non-climbers, representation structures differed more strongly than in climbers and did not clearly refer to grip types. To learn about categorical knowledge activation in Experiment 2, a priming paradigm was applied. Images of hands in grasping postures were presented as targets and images of congruent, neutral, or incongruent climbing holds were used as primes. Only in climbers, reaction times were shorter and error rates were smaller for the congruent condition than for the incongruent condition. The neutral condition resulted in intermediate performance. The findings suggest that perception of climbing holds activates the commonly associated grasping postures in climbers but not in non-climbers. The findings of this study give evidence that the categorization of visually perceived objects is fundamentally influenced by the cognitive-motor potential for interaction, which depends on the observer's experience and expertise. Thus, motor expertise not only facilitates precise action perception, but also benefits the perception of action-relevant objects

Habitual vs Non- Habitual Manual Actions: An ERP Study on Overt Movement Execution

Westerholz J, Schack T, Schütz C, Koester D. Habitual vs Non- Habitual Manual Actions: An ERP Study on Overt Movement Execution. PLoS ONE. 2014;9(4): e93116.This study explored the neurophysiological mechanisms underlying the planning and execution of an overt goal- related handle rotation task. More specifically, we studied the neural basis of motor actions concerning the influence of the grasp choice. The aim of the present study was to differentiate cerebral activity between grips executed in a habitual and a nonhabitual mode, and between specified and free grip choices. To our knowledge, this is the first study to differentiate cerebral activity underlying overt goal-related actions executed with a focus on the habitual mode. In a handle rotation task, participants had to use thumb-toward (habitual) or thumb- away ( non- habitual) grips to rotate a handle to a given target position. Reaction and reach times were shorter for the habitual compared to the non- habitual mode indicating that the habitual mode requires less cognitive processing effort than the non- habitual mode. Neural processes for action execution ( measured by event-related potentials ( ERPs)) differed between habitual and non-habitual conditions. We found differential activity between habitual and non- habitual conditions in left and right frontal areas from -600 to 200 ms time- locked to reaching the target position. No differential neural activity could be traced for the specification of the grip. The results suggested that the frontal negativity reflected increased difficulty in movement precision control in the non- habitual mode compared to the habitual mode during the homing in phase of grasp and rotation actions

Sensorimotor Rhythm Neurofeedback Enhances Golf Putting Performance

Cheng M-Y, Huang C-J, Chang Y-K, Koester D, Schack T, Hung T-M. Sensorimotor Rhythm Neurofeedback Enhances Golf Putting Performance. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology. 2015;37(6):626-636.Sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) activity has been related to automaticity during skilled action execution. However, few studies have bridged the causal link between SMR activity and sports performance. This study investigated the effect of SMR neurofeedback training (SMR NFT) on golf putting performance. We hypothesized that preelite golfers would exhibit enhanced putting performance after SMR NFT. Sixteen preelite golfers were recruited and randomly assigned into either an SMR or a control group. Participants were asked to perform putting while electroencephalogram (EEG) was recorded, both before and after intervention. Our results showed that the SMR group performed more accurately when putting and exhibited greater SMR power than the control group after 8 intervention sessions. This study concludes that SMR NFT is effective for increasing SMR during action preparation and for enhancing golf putting performance. Moreover, greater SMR activity might be an EEG signature of improved attention processing, which induces superior putting performance

Motor expertise facilitates the cognitive evaluation of body postures: An ERP study

Koester D, Schack T, Güldenpenning I. Motor expertise facilitates the cognitive evaluation of body postures: An ERP study. In: Barkowsky T, Llansola ZF, Schultheis H, van de Ven J, eds. Proceedings of the 13th Biannual Conference of the German Cognitive Science Society. Bremen: Universität Bremen; 2016: 59-62