Abstract

Electrophysiological studies in macaques and functional neuroimaging in humans revealed a motor region in the superior colliculus (SC) for upper limb reaching movements. Connectivity studies in macaques reported direct connections between this SC motor region and cortical premotor arm, hand, and finger regions. These findings motivated us to investigate if the human SC is also involved in sequential finger tapping movements. We analyzed fMRI task data of 130 subjects executing finger tapping from the Human Connectome Project. While we found strong signals in the SC for visual cues, we found no signals related to simple finger tapping. In subsequent experimental measurements, we searched for responses in the SC corresponding to complex above simple finger tapping sequences. We observed expected signal increases in cortical motor and premotor regions for complex compared to simple finger tapping, but no signal increases in the motor region of the SC. Despite evidence for direct anatomical connections of the SC motor region and cortical premotor hand and finger areas in macaques, our results suggest that the SC is not involved in simple or complex finger tapping in humans.

Details

Title
The superior colliculus motor region does not respond to finger tapping movements in humans
Author
Prabhu, Nikhil G. 1 ; Knodel, Nicole 2 ; Himmelbach, Marc 3 

 University of Tübingen, Division of Neuropsychology, Center of Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.10392.39) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 1447); University of Tübingen, Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.10392.39) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 1447); University of Tübingen, International Max Planck Research School in Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.10392.39) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 1447) 
 University of Tübingen, Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.10392.39) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 1447); University of Tübingen, International Max Planck Research School in Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.10392.39) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 1447) 
 University of Tübingen, Division of Neuropsychology, Center of Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.10392.39) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 1447); University of Tübingen, Graduate Training Centre of Neuroscience, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.10392.39) (ISNI:0000 0001 2190 1447); Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, High Field Magnetic Resonance, Tübingen, Germany (GRID:grid.419501.8) (ISNI:0000 0001 2183 0052) 
Pages
1769
Publication year
2024
Publication date
2024
Publisher
Nature Publishing Group
e-ISSN
20452322
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2916551778
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2024. This work is published under http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (the “License”). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.